Spin Swapping in an Antiferromagnet

Weiwei Lin, Southeast University

August 26th, 2022

The transport of spin angular momentum of electrons is fundamental in condensed matter physics. Spin current phenomena, such as spin Hall and spin Seebeck effects, have been known to be essential in spintronics in recent decades. In this talk, I will show the experimental evidence for swapping of spin currents, the interchange of directions of spin (magnon) flow and spin index, in a canted antiferromagnetic insulator LaFeO3 [1]. This effect enables the electrical readout of room-temperature magnetization switching in antiferromagnetic insulators, paving the way for the challenging antiferromagnetic spintronics.

[1] W. Lin, J. He, B. Ma, M. Matzelle, J. Xu, J. Freeland, Y. Choi, D. Haskel, B. Barbiellini, A. Bansil, G. A. Fiete, J. Zhou, and C. L. Chien, Evidence for spin swapping in an antiferromagnet, Nat. Phys. 18, 800 (2022).Â