Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Spintronics is a research field that studies the active control and detection schemes of the spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. Over decades, novel phenomena have been discovered in the variety of ferromagnet-based systems, forming the core elements for spintronic applications. Recently, effort in the field has been deployed to enhance the device switching speed and reduce power consumption. In this regard, antiferromagnets are outstanding candidates to replace the widely used ferromagnets in the next generation of spintronic applications due to their robustness against magnetic perturbations, absence of stray fields, and ultrafast dynamics.

We are exploring the physical properties related to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) symmetry, analyzing their responses against the reorientation of the AFM order parameter (Néel vector), and designing new material platforms with promising functionalities for AFM spintronics.

Research highlights:

1. AFM tunnel junctions

   • Ding-Fu Shao^† and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions for Spintronics, npj Spintron., 2, 13 (2024).

   • Kartik Samanta^*†, Yuan-Yuan Jiang^*, Tula R. Paudel, Ding-Fu Shao^†, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Tunneling magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions with a single ferromagnetic electrode, Phys. Rev. B, 109, 174407 (2024).

   • Yuan-Yuan Jiang, Zi-An Wang, Kartik Samanta, Shu-Hui Zhang, Rui-Chun Xiao, W. J. Lu, Y. P. Sun, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Ding-Fu Shao^†, Prediction of Giant Tunneling Magnetoresistance in RuO₂/TiO₂/RuO₂ (110) Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions, Phys. Rev. B, 108, 174439 (2023).

   • Ding-Fu Shao^*†, Yuan-Yuan Jiang^*, Jun Ding^*, Shu-Hui Zhang, Zi-An Wang, Rui-Chun Xiao, Gautam Gurung, W. J. Lu, Y. P. Sun, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Néel Spin Currents in Antiferromagnets, Phys. Rev. Lett., 130, 216702 (2023).

   • Ding-Fu Shao^*†, Shu-Hui Zhang^*†, Rui-Chun Xiao, Zi-An Wang, W. J. Lu, Y. P. Sun, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Spin-Neutral Tunneling Anomalous Hall Effect, Phys. Rev. B, 106, L180404 (2022).

   • Ding-Fu Shao^†, Shu-Hui Zhang, Ming Li, Chang-Beom Eom, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Spin-neutral currents for spintronics, Nat. Commun., 12, 7061 (2021).

2. An AFM Dirac nodal line metal
   • Ding-Fu Shao^†, Gautam Gurung, Shu-Hui Zhang, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Dirac nodal line metal for topological antiferromagnetic spintronics, Phys. Rev. Lett., 122, 077203 (2019).  
3. Nonlinear effects in antiferromagnets

   • Hang Zhou, Rui-Chun Xiao^†, Shu-Hui Zhang, Wei Gan, Hui Han, Hong-Miao Zhao, Wenjian Lu, Changjin Zhang, Yuping Sun, Hui Li^†, and Ding-Fu Shao^†, Skin Effect of Nonlinear Optical Responses in Antiferromagnets, Phys. Rev. Lett., 133, 236903 (2024).

   • Ding-Fu Shao^*†, Shu-Hui Zhang^*†, Gautam Gurung, Wen Yang, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Nonlinear anomalous Hall effect for Néel vector detection, Phys. Rev. Lett., 124, 067203 (2020).  

4. The noncollinear AFM antiperovskite family: A new AFM spintronic platform

   • Gautam Gurung^†, Mohamed Elekhtiar, Qing-Qing Luo, Ding-Fu Shao^†, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Nearly perfect spin polarization of noncollinear antiferromagnets, Nat. Commun., 15, 10242 (2024).

   • Gautam Gurung, Ding-Fu Shao^†, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Transport Spin Polarization of Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic Antiperovskites, Phys. Rev. Mater., 5, 124411 (2021).

   • Gautam Gurung, Ding-Fu Shao^†, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Spin-torque switching of noncollinear antiferromagnetic antiperovskites, Phys. Rev. B, 101, 140405(R) (2020).

   • Ding-Fu Shao^†, Gautam Gurung, Tula R. Paudel, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Electrically reversible magnetization at the antiperovskite/perovskite interface, Phys. Rev. Mater., 3, 024405 (2019).

   • Gautam Gurung, Ding-Fu Shao^†, Tula R. Paudel, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Anomalous Hall conductivity of noncollinear magnetic antiperovskites, Phys. Rev. Mater., 3, 044409 (2019).

5. Ferroelectric control of anomalous Hall effect in antiferromagnets

   • Tengfei Cao^†, Ding-Fu Shao^†, Kai Huang, Gautam Gurung, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Switchable Anomalous Hall Effects in Polar-Stacked 2D Antiferromagnet MnBi₂Te₄, Nano Lett. 23, 3781 (2023).

   • Ding-Fu Shao^†, Jun Ding, Gautam Gurung, Shu-Hui Zhang, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, Interfacial Crystal Hall Effect Reversible by Ferroelectric Polarization, Phys. Rev. Applied, 15, 024057 (2021).

6. Antiferromagnets as promissing spin sources in experiments

   • Yaqin Guo, Jing Zhang, Zengtai Zhu, Yuan-yuan Jiang, Longxing Jiang, Chuangwen Wu, Jing Dong, Xing Xu, Wenqing He, Bin He, Zhiheng Huang, Luojun Du, Guangyu Zhang, Kehui Wu, Xiufeng Han, Ding-fu Shao, Guoqiang Yu^†, and Hao Wu^†, Direct and Inverse Spin Splitting Effects in Altermagnetic RuO₂, Adv. Sci., 11 (25), 2400967 (2024).

   • Cuimei Cao, Shiwei Chen, Rui-Chun Xiao, Zengtai Zhu, Guoqiang Yu, Yangping Wang, Xuepeng Qiu, Liang Liu, Tieyang Zhao, Ding-Fu Shao^†, Yang Xu^†, Jingsheng Chen^†, and Qingfeng Zhan^†, Anomalous spin current anisotropy in a noncollinear antiferromagnet, Nat. Commun. 14, 5873 (2023).

   • Shuai Hu^*, Ding-Fu Shao^*, Huanglin Yang^*, Chang Pan^*, Zhenxiao Fu, Meng Tang, Yumeng Yang^†, Weijia Fan, Shiming Zhou, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal^†, and Xuepeng Qiu^†, Efficient perpendicular magnetization switching by a magnetic spin Hall effect in a noncollinear antiferromagnet, Nat. Commun. 13, 4447 (2022).

   • Arnab Bose, Nathaniel J. Schreiber, Rakshit Jain, Ding-Fu Shao, Hari P. Nair, Jiaxin Sun, Xiyue S. Zhang, David A. Muller, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Darrell G. Schlom, and Daniel C. Ralph^†, Tilted spin current generated by the collinear antiferromagnet ruthenium dioxide, Nat. Electron., 5, 267 (2022).

   • T. Nan, C. X. Quintela, J. Irwin, G. Gurung, D. F. Shao, J. Gibbons, N. Campbell, K. Song, S. -Y. Choi, L. Guo, R. D. Johnson, P. Manuel, R. V. Chopdekar, I. Hallsteinsen, T. Tybell, P. J. Ryan, J. -W. Kim, Y. Choi, P. G. Radaelli, D. C. Ralph, E. Y. Tsymbal, M. S. Rzchowski, and C. B. Eom^†, Controlling spin current polarization through non-collinear antiferromagnetism, Nat. Commun., 11, 4671 (2020).