Magnonic analog of the Edelstein effect in antiferromagnetic insulators

Authors

Bo Li, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Alexander Mook, University of Basel, SwitzerlandFollow
Aldo Raeliarijaona, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Alexey Kovalev, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

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

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW B 101, 024427 (2020)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.101.024427

Comments

©2020 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

We investigate the nonequilibrium spin polarization due to a temperature gradient in antiferromagnetic insulators, which is the magnonic analog of the inverse spin-galvanic effect of electrons. We derive a linear-response theory of a temperature-gradient-induced spin polarization for collinear and noncollinear antiferromagnets, which comprises both extrinsic and intrinsic contributions. We apply our theory to several noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnetic insulators, i.e., to a one-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin chain, a single layer of kagome noncollinear antiferromagnet,e.g.,KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2,and a noncollinear breathing pyrochlore antiferromagnet, e.g., LiGaCr4O8. The shapes of our numerically evaluated response tensors agree with those implied by the magnetic symmetry. Assuming a realistic temperature gradient of 10 K/mm, we find two-dimensional spin densities of up to ∼10^6 hbar/cm^2 and three-dimensional bulk spin densities of up to ∼10^14 hbar/cm^3, encouraging an experimental detection.