Photocurrents, inverse Faraday effect and photospin Hall effect in Mn$_2$Au

Abstract

Among antiferromagnetic materials, Mn 2 Au is one of the most intensively studied, and it serves as a very popular platform for testing various ideas related to antiferromagnetic magnetotransport and dynamics. Since recently, this material has also attracted considerable interest in the context of optical properties and optically-driven antiferromagnetic switching. In this work, we use first principles methods to explore the physics of charge photocurrents, spin photocurrents and inverse Faraday effect in antiferromagnetic Mn 2 Au. We predict the symmetry and magnitude of these effects, and speculate that they can be used for tracking the dynamics of staggered moments during switching. Our calculations reveal the emergence of large photocurrents of spin in collinear Mn 2 Au, whose properties can be understood as a result of a non-linear optical version of spin Hall effect − which we refer to as the photospin Hall effect − encoded into the relation between the driving charge and resulting spin photocurrents. Moreover, we suggest that even a very small canting in Mn 2 Au can give rise to colossal spin photocurrents which are chiral in flavor. We conclude that the combination of staggered magnetization with the structural and electronic properties of this material results in a unique blend of prominent photocurrents, which makes Mn 2 Au a unique platform for advanced optospintronics applications.