Anisotropic long-range spin transport in canted antiferromagnetic orthoferrite YFeO3

Shubhankar Das (1) , A. Ross (2) , X. X. Ma (3) , S. Becker (1) , C. Schmitt (1) , F. van Duijn (4, 5) , E. F. Galindez-Ruales (1) , F. Fuhrmann (1) , M.-A Syskaki (1) , U. Ebels (4) , Vincent Baltz (4) , A.-L Barra (5) , H. Y. Chen (3) , G. Jakob (1) , S. X. Cao (3) , J. Sinova (1) , O. Gomonay (1) , R. Lebrun (2) , M. Kläui (1)

1 JGU - Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz = Johannes Gutenberg University
2 Laboratoire Albert Fert (ex-UMPhy Unité mixte de physique CNRS/Thales)
3 Shanghai University
4 SPINTEC - SPINtronique et TEchnologie des Composants
5 LNCMI-G - Laboratoire national des champs magnétiques intenses - Grenoble

In antiferromagnets, the efficient propagation of spin-waves has until now only been observed in the insulating antiferromagnet hematite, where circularly (or a superposition of pairs of linearly) polarized spin-waves propagate over long distances. Here, we report long-distance spin-transport in the antiferromagnetic orthoferrite YFeO3, where a different transport mechanism is enabled by the combined presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and externally applied fields. The magnon decay length is shown to exceed hundreds of nano-meters, in line with resonance measurements that highlight the low magnetic damping. We observe a strong anisotropy in the magnon decay lengths that we can attribute to the role of the magnon group velocity in the propagation of spin-waves in antiferromagnets. This unique mode of transport identified in YFeO3 opens up the possibility of a large and technologically relevant class of materials, i.e., canted antiferromagnets, for long-distance spin transport.

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Shubhankar Das, A. Ross, X. X. Ma, S. Becker, C. Schmitt, et al.. Anisotropic long-range spin transport in canted antiferromagnetic orthoferrite YFeO3. Nature Communications, 2022, 13 (6140), ⟨10.1038/s41467-022-33520-5⟩. ⟨hal-03480953v2⟩