Spin current detection in antiferromagnetic CuMnAs

摘要

In this paper, we investigate the spin current to charge current conversion properties of the metallic collinear antiferromagnetic (AF) CuMnAs. Bilayers of Permalloy (Py = Ni81Fe19)/CuMnAs and yttrium iron garnet (YIG = Y3Fe5O13)/CuMnAs were investigated by means of the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) using spin pumping effect and spin Seebeck effect experiments in which a spin-current generated in the ferromagnetic layer is injected into the AF layer. The CuMnAs layers with the thickness in the range of 3-20 nm grown by sputtering have a textured polycrystalline structure in the tetragonal phase. By measuring the ISHE current of each bilayer, we were able to obtain two key spintronic parameters: the spin Hall angle (theta SH) and the spin diffusion length (lambda sd) for CuMnAs, which are theta SH=0.009 and lambda Sd=2.7 nm. With this investigation, we show that the unique AF material CuMnAs can be used as a spin-current detector, which opens up new avenues for AF spintronics.