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Coherent Transfer of Spin Angular Momentum by Evanescent Spin Waves within Antiferromagnetic NiO

Maciej Dąbrowski, Takafumi Nakano, David M. Burn, Andreas Frisk, David G. Newman, Christoph Klewe, Qian Li, Mengmeng Yang, Padraic Shafer, Elke Arenholz, Thorsten Hesjedal, Gerrit van der Laan, Zi Q. Qiu, and Robert J. Hicken
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 217201 – Published 26 May 2020
Physics logo See Viewpoint: Spin Current in an Antiferromagnet is Coherent
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Abstract

Insulating antiferromagnets have recently emerged as efficient and robust conductors of spin current. Element-specific and phase-resolved x-ray ferromagnetic resonance has been used to probe the injection and transmission of ac spin current through thin epitaxial NiO(001) layers. The spin current is found to be mediated by coherent evanescent spin waves of GHz frequency, rather than propagating magnons of THz frequency, paving the way towards coherent control of the phase and amplitude of spin currents within an antiferromagnetic insulator at room temperature.

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  • Received 17 December 2019
  • Accepted 6 April 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.217201

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

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Spin Current in an Antiferromagnet is Coherent

Published 26 May 2020

Experiments show that a spin current moves as a coherent evanescent spin wave through an antiferromagnet layer sandwiched between two ferromagnets.

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Authors & Affiliations

Maciej Dąbrowski1,*, Takafumi Nakano1,2, David M. Burn3, Andreas Frisk3, David G. Newman1, Christoph Klewe4, Qian Li5, Mengmeng Yang5, Padraic Shafer4, Elke Arenholz4, Thorsten Hesjedal6, Gerrit van der Laan3, Zi Q. Qiu5, and Robert J. Hicken1,†

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QL, United Kingdom
  • 2Spintronics Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8568, Japan
  • 3Magnetic Spectroscopy Group, Diamond Light Source, Didcot OX11 0DE, United Kingdom
  • 4Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 5Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 6Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, OX1 Oxford 3PU, United Kingdom

  • *m.k.dabrowski@exeter.ac.uk
  • r.j.hicken@exeter.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 124, Iss. 21 — 29 May 2020

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