Abstract:

Antiferromagnetic materials could represent the future of spintronic applications thanks to the numerous interesting features they combine: they are robust against perturbation due to magnetic fields, produce no stray fields, display ultrafast dynamics and are capable of generating large magneto-transport effects. Intense research efforts over the past decade have been invested in unraveling spin-dependent transport properties in antiferromagnetic materials. Whether spin-dependent transport can be used to drive the antiferromagnetic order and how subsequent variations can be detected are some of the thrilling challenges currently being addressed. Antiferromagnetic spintronics started out with studies on spin transfer, and has undergone a definite revival in the last few years with the publication of pioneering articles on the use of spin-orbit interactions in antiferromagnets. This paradigm shift offers possibilities for radically new concepts for spin manipulation in electronics. Central to these endeavors are the need for predictive models, relevant disruptive materials and new experimental designs. This talk reviews some of the spintronic effects described based on experimental analysis of antiferromagnetic materials. It covers some spin-transfer-related effects with a focus on the injection of a spin current in thin antiferromagnetic films (e.g. interfacial spin mixing conductance and spin penetration length); and some spin-orbit related phenomena such as the (inverse) spin Hall effect.