2017/02/28 by Jakub Zelezny, Yang Zhang, Claudia Felser +1 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.187204
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 187204 (2017) · 6 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2018/09/28 · arxiv updated 2018/10/01
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.