Generate spin currents from an antiferromagnet
J Zelezny, Y Zhang, C Felser, B Yan, arXiv:1702.00295 (2017).
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 transversal spin current, which has a distinct symmetry and origin from the conventional spin Hall effect (SHE). We illustrate the existence of the spin-polarized current and the transversal spin current by performing ab initio microscopic calculations and by analyzing the symmetry. Based on the spin-polarized current we propose an antiferromagnetic tunneling junction, analogous in functionality to the magnetic tunneling junction.
