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Electrical spin, which is the key element of spintronics, has been regarded as a powerful substitute for the electrical charge in the next generation of information technology, in which spin plays the role of the carrier of information and/or energy in a similar way to the electrical charge in electronics. Spin-transport phenomena in different materials are central topics of spintronics. Unlike electrical charge, spin transport does not depend on electron motion, particularly spin can be transported in insulators without accompanying Joule heating. Therefore, insulators are considered to be ideal materials for spin conductors, in which magnetic insulators are the most compelling systems. Recently, we experimentally studied and theoretically discussed spin transport in various antiferromagnetic systems and identified spin susceptibility and the Néel vector as the most important factors for spin transport in antiferromagnetic systems. Herein, we summarize our experimental results, physical nature, and puzzles unknown. Further challenges and potential applications are also discussed.
Spintronics emerged from discoveries in spin-dependent electron transport phenomena in solid-state devices. The significant event of spintronics was the discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) independently by Albert Fert et al.[1] and Peter Grünberg et al.;[2] this discovery is also considered the starting point of modem spintronics. Since then, spintronics, a new field of study at the intersection of magnetism, electronics and informatics, has gained considerable research attention in the science community.[3,4] In particular, since the beginning of the 21st century, spintronics has grown to be a separate field of research revolving around the fundamental term ‘spin current’, in which transport phenomena of electrical spin and/or spin angular momentum have become central concepts. Extensive studies have been conducted on the use of spin current to replace charge current.[5]
Developing a pure spin-based device whereby information would be processed by spin rather than by charge,[5] has been a core mission for spintronics. Therefore, generation, modulation, and detection of spin are the three central issues in this mission, for which many approaches and new physics have been proposed, discovered, and discussed.[6] However, obtaining real applicable spin devices is still difficult, and achieving efficient spin modulation is the urgent issue. This study aims to find approaches and material systems to simply and efficiently control spin transport.
Basically, spin transport can be modulated by means of any spin-related interactions in a material, e.g., spin–spin, spin–phonon, and spin–photon interactions. As two sides of one entity, transport spins in a spin current can be used to probe spin-related properties of a material. Therefore, the spin modulation issue in a condensed-state system can be addressed by finding and fully understanding the interaction between spin and other degrees of freedom in a material.
Antiferromagnetics has become a growing concern in the field of spintronics. Recently, we have focused on antiferromagnetic insulators (AFMIs). First, spin-related phenomena and appropriate materials for next-generation spin-based devices can be extensively studied because of large number of AFMIs. AFMIs shield the spin transport from most associated charge-related effects, thereby making it easier to study the fundamental physics of spin angle-momentum transport. The demonstration of spin transport through an antiferromagnetic material was first achieved by Wang et al.,[7] and subsequently similar results were obtained by other researchers[8,9] using samples with comparable structure. Spins were injected into the AFMI layer using yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and detected by the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE)[10] in platinum on the other side. The most interesting result of research using this YIG/AFMI/Pt structure is that the detected spin signal is enhanced when the AFM layer is NiO and the thickness is around 1 nm,[7] which motivated the development of spin-related investigations in AFMI.
We systematically studied spin transport phenomena in various AFMIs from the viewpoints of spin application and spin modulation. We found spin susceptibility and the Néel vector to be the most important factors for spin transport in AFMIs. We summarize our experimental results and theoretical explanations. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the experimental set-up. Section 3 introduces our experimental results in three sub-sections, in which experiments related to spin susceptibility,[11] Néel vector,[12] and spin colossal magnetoresistance (SCMR)[12] are described respectively. In the final section, we summarize our present work and discuss further challenges and potential applications.
Electron spin is not isolated but is correlated to many physical degrees of freedom, including spin itself. Therefore, other physical quantities can be probed via a spin-related interaction. Inelastic neutron scattering, for example, can be used to detect magnetic excitations in an antiferromagnetic system by spin–spin interaction between the neutrons’ spins and the local spins (Fig.
Therefore, a trilayer device (Fig.
Spin susceptibility is one of the key factors for spin transport in an antiferromagnetic system. The magnetic phase transition of an ultrathin antiferromagnetic film can be detected by a pure spin-current probe. The detection of such a phase transition in an ultrathin film is impossible without using large synchrotron facilities and a special x-ray magnetic linear dichroism spectrometer.[15–17] Our present method provides a way to probe such a phase transition by a bench-top experiment. Transport spins penetrating the antiferromagnetic film also carry the dynamic information about local spins due to spin–spin interactions. Potentially a method for magnetic research on ultrathin antiferromagnetic films, this approach will encourage further investigations.
Figure
Figure
These results indicate that the spins are transported dominantly by incoherent thermal magnons rather than coherent Néel dynamics in an antiferromagnetic system. At high temperatures, thermal magnons continuously evolve into thermal spin fluctuations, which would transport spin current above the Néel temperature. Such thermal spin dynamics both below and above TN are well described by the bosonic auxiliary-particle method. Using this method, the spin conductivity in an antiferromagnetic insulator was shown to be maximized near its Néel temperature, exactly like our VISHE.[22] Since VISHE measures spin moments transferred across magnetic insulators, its enhancement directly reflects that of the spin conductivity. The spin conductivity and the magnetic susceptibility are in principle different quantities. However, their temperature dependence is rather similar because both are dominated by spin excitations with zero momentum transfer. Therefore, VISHE in our experimental set-up is a good measure of spin dynamics and transition.
Unlike electrical charge, spin has not only a definite magnitude but also has a ‘direction’, which makes spin transport act with an intrinsic anisotropy. It is natural that magnetic anisotropy affects the spin transport in condensed-state matter. In an antiferromagnet system, the magnetic anisotropy is mainly defined by the Néel vector. In Fig.
Figure
A steep conductor-nonconductor transition for spin currents was observed in CrO. Figure
The sharp transition observed at the Néel temperature is attributed to the anisotropic transmissivity of the antiferromagnet in combination with the device geometry. Above the Néel temperature, the paramagnetic moments of CrO follow the external magnetic field and spin current is carried by the correlation of the paramagnetic moments as previously reported.[11,29,30] Below the Néel temperature, in the ordered antiferromagnetic phase, only the spin component parallel (or antiparallel) to the Néel vector can be carried by magnons.[31] Below the Néel temperature, due to the strong uniaxial anisotropy, the Néel vector of CrO is pinned to the easy axis (out of plane in this work). When the YIG magnetization is in the plane of the film, the spins are polarized perpendicularly to the CrO Néel vector and the spin current cannot be transmitted into the CrO. Also, the strength of the anisotropy in CrO is almost independent of temperature, collapsing to zero only very close to the Néel temperature.[32] Therefore, the CrO is strongly aligned perpendicular to the plane for almost the entire temperature range and no spin current can be transmitted. The small temperature window where the anisotropy decreases corresponds with the increase in ISHE voltage.
Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) refers to a large change in electrical conductivity induced by a magnetic field in the vicinity of a metal–insulator transition. CMR occurs due to a correlation between the magnetic structure and electron conduction and has inspired extensive studies for decades.[33,34] As mentioned above, we have confirmed the spin conductor–nonconductor transition in the CrO antiferromagnetic system. If the spin conductivity of such a system can be tuned by an external magnetic field, we then can term a spin version of CMR effect (SCMR). We found that the spin conductivity of CrO has an anisotropic response to magnetic fields in the critical region of the magnetic transition and that it depends on both the magnitude and direction of the magnetic field.
Within the critical region, we measured the dependence of VSSE on the magnetic field magnitude
Figure
As mentioned in the prior section, only the spin component parallel (or antiparallel) to the Néel vector can be carried by magnons, therefore spin transport is blocked because of the strong uniaxial anisotropy. However, in the region just below the Néel temperature, where the anisotropy is reducing, the enhanced susceptibility and reduced anisotropy in this small temperature window allows the Néel vector to be slightly rotated. giving a finite in-the-plane y-component onto which the spin current is projected.[32,35] This makes spin conductivity able to be manipulated with an applied magnetic field: the SCMR.
From results of our investigating spin-transport phenomena in various AFMI thin films, we found that the spin susceptibility and the Néel vector are the most important factors affecting the transport spin. We demonstrated that spin current can be a probe for detecting the antiferromagnetic phase transition in an ultrathin AFMI film. Furthermore, in a uniaxial AFMI CrO, we discovered a spin conductor–nonconductor transition. Such a transition can be tuned efficiently by an external magnetic field; as it is reminiscent of the CMR in electronics, we call it the spin CMR (SCMR).
Our results show that the AFMI system is a possible functional core for a spin device, by which a spin transistor may be achieved.[36] However, the mechanisms of spin transport through AFMI, which is indispensable for further design and development of such a device, has not been clarified. For example, the frequency dependence of the spin-pumping behavior near the Néel temperature,[11] which implies that the observed phenomena reflects dynamical properties, is required for further theoretical understanding. Therefore, constructing a comprehensive theory for spin-current transport is an important outstanding task for the future development of the proposed spintronic device based on AFMI.
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