Intrinsic spin Nernst effect of magnons in a noncollinear antiferromagnet

Authors

Bo Li, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Shane Sandhoefner, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Alexey Kovalev, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Bo Li https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5713-1592

S. Sandhoefner https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4238-7277

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH 2, 013079 (2020)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.013079

Comments

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Abstract

We investigate the intrinsic magnon spin current in a noncollinear antiferromagnetic insulator. We introduce a definition of the magnon spin current in a noncollinear antiferromagnet and find that it is in general nonconserved, but for certain symmetries and spin polarizations the averaged effect of nonconserving terms can vanish. We formulate a general linear response theory for magnons in noncollinear antiferromagnets subject to a temperature gradient and analyze the effect of symmetries on the response tensor. We apply this theory to single-layer potassium iron jarosite KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2 and predict a measurable spin current response.