2024/09/15 by Xukun Feng, Feng, Xukun, Jin Cao +13 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic properties of thin films #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Quantum and electron transport phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.09669
openalex publication_date 2024/09/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Electric control of spin in insulators is desired for low-consumption and ultrafast spintronics, but the underlying mechanism remains largely unexplored. Here, we propose an intrinsic effect of dynamic spin generation driven by time-varying electric field. In the intraband response regime, it can be nicely formulated as a Berry curvature effect and leads to two phenomena that are forbidden in the dc limit: linear spin generation in nonmagnetic insulators and intrinsic Néel spin-orbit torque in PT-symmetric antiferromagnetic insulators. These phenomena are driven by the time derivative of field rather than the field itself, and have a quantum origin in the first-order dynamic anomalous spin polarizability. Combined with first-principles calculations, we predict sizable effects driven by terahertz field in nonmagnetic monolayer Bi and in antiferromagnetic even-layer MnBi2Te4, which can be detected in experiment.