Research: Spin-Polarized Current in Noncollinear Antiferromag­nets

Noncollinear antiferromagnets, such as Mn₃Sn and Mn₃Ir, were recently shown to be analogous to ferromagnets in that they have a large anomalous Hall effect. Here we show that these materials are similar to ferromagnets in another aspect: the charge current in these materials is spin polarized. In addition, we show that the same mechanism that leads to the spin-polarized current also leads to a transverse spin current, which has a distinct symmetry and origin from the conventional spin Hall effect. We illustrate the existence of the spin-polarized current and the transverse spin current by performing ab initio microscopic calculations and by analyzing the symmetry. We discuss possible applications of these novel spin currents, such as an antiferromagnetic metallic or tunneling junction.

J. Železný, Y. Zhang, C. Felser, B. Yan,
Spin-Polarized Current in Noncollinear Antiferromagnets,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 187204 (2017)