Anisotropic long-range spin transport in canted antiferromagnetic orthoferrite YFeO3

Abstract

In antiferromagnets, the efficient transport of spin-waves has until now only been observed in the insulating antiferromagnet hematite, where circularly (or a superposition of pairs of linearly) polarized spin-waves diffuse over long distances. Here, we report long-distance spin-transport in the antiferromagnetic orthoferrite YFeO3, where a different transport mechanism is enabled by the combined presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and externally applied fields. The magnon decay length is shown to exceed hundreds of nanometers, in line with resonance measurements that highlight the low magnetic damping. We observe a strong anisotropy in the magnon decay lengths that we can attribute to the role of the magnon group velocity in the transport of spin-waves in antiferromagnets. This unique mode of transport identified in YFeO3 opens up the possibility of a large and technologically relevant class of materials, i.e., canted antiferromagnets, for long-distance spin transport.

Spin Reorientation Transition and Negative Magnetoresistance in Ferromagnetic NdCrSb3 Single Crystals

“…Upon sweeping the magnetic fields, the magnetization reaches a saturation value of ~4.2 along the a axis, which is, as discussed above, contributed by both Nd 3+ and Cr 3+ moments. With further increasing of the magnetic field, the magnetization along the a axis increase slightly to ~5 , which agree with that reported in the literature (~4.2 μ B at saturation point) [ 9 , 13 ]. Interestingly, the M-H loop along the b axis shows different behaviors.…”

“…The Hall effect along the two directions is shown in Figure 3 e,f, from which anomalous Hall effects are observed. In the RFeO 3 system [ 9 ], the spintronic application requires heterostructure building due to the insulating nature of the crystals. In metallic NdCrSb 3 crystal, the intrinsic negative MR and anomalous Hall effect directly reflects the spin information, and may potentially benefit the spintronic applications.…”

“…Between the two magnetic sublattices, one of the most important interactions is the antisymmetric exchange interaction, namely the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction, which contributes to the spin reorientation (SR) transition in RMX 3 compounds [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. The antiferromagnetic structure in YFeO 3 also yields polarized spin waves diffusing over distance and, therefore, can be used in spintronic applications [ 9 ].…”

Long distance magnon transport in the van der Waals antiferromagnet CrPS$_4$

“…A surprise of the present study is the absence of nonlocal transport in the non-collinear phase. This behavior is markedly different from previous studies of transport that were carried out with magnetic fields parallel to the Néel vector, including the spin-flop transition [8][9][10]. However, the associated theories do not address the present configuration either.…”

“…Magnon transport has been extensively studied in conventional magnets by, e.g., spin pumping [5], the spin Seebeck effect (SSE) [6], and electrical magnon spin injection/detection [7]. Long distance magnon transport in the antiferromagnets hematite [8], nickel oxide [9], and YFeO 3 [10] has been demonstrated. Ultrathin films of the low-damping ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG), the material of choice for efficient magnon transport, show the beneficial effects of twodimensional (2D) vs. three-dimensional (3D) transport in the form of strongly enhanced magnon conductivities [11].…”