Hamara, Dominik, Strungaru, Mara, Massey, Jamie R. et al. (12 more authors) (2024) Ultra-high spin emission from antiferromagnetic FeRh. Nature Communications. 4958. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
An antiferromagnet emits spin currents when time-reversal symmetry is broken. This is typically achieved by applying an external magnetic field below and above the spin-flop transition or by optical pumping. In this work we apply optical pump-THz emission spectroscopy to study picosecond spin pumping from metallic FeRh as a function of temperature. Intriguingly we find that in the low-temperature antiferromagnetic phase the laser pulse induces a large and coherent spin pumping, while not crossing into the ferromagnetic phase. With temperature and magnetic field dependent measurements combined with atomistic spin dynamics simulations we show that the antiferromagnetic spin-lattice is destabilised by the combined action of optical pumping and picosecond spin-biasing by the conduction electron population, which results in spin accumulation. We propose that the amplitude of the effect is inherent to the nature of FeRh, particularly the Rh atoms and their high spin susceptibility. We believe that the principles shown here could be used to produce more effective spin current emitters. Our results also corroborate the work of others showing that the magnetic phase transition begins on a very fast picosecond timescale, but this timescale is often hidden by measurements which are confounded by the slower domain dynamics.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024 Funding Information: C.C. and J.B. acknowledge support from the Royal Society through University Research Fellowships. This project was supported by the Diamond Light Source and has received funding from the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie (grant agreement No. 861300) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant numbers EP/V037935/1 and EP/X027074/1). Calculations were performed on ARC4, part of the High-Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds. CC thanks Dr. Samer Kurdi for the fruitful discussion. QR would like to thank Karel V\u00FDborn\u00FD for the fruitful discussion on ref. of the SI as well as for providing data necessary to get the interband conductivity (ref. in the SI). |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Physics (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Biology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jun 2024 12:00 |
Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2024 01:31 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48795-z |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-024-48795-z |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:213882 |