Picosecond Spin Current Generation from Vicinal Metal-Antiferromagnetic Insulator Interfaces

作     者：B. Yang Qing Ji F. Z. Huang Jiacong Li Y. Z. Tian B. Xue Ruxian Zhu Hui Wu Hanyue Yang Y. B. Yang Shaolong Tang H. B. Zhao Y. Cao J. Du B. G. Wang Chunfeng Zhang D. Wu 

作者机构：National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory for Nanotechnology Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and Department of Physics Nanjing University Nanjing 210093 People’s Republic of China Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education) Department of Optical Science and Engineering Fudan University Shanghai 200433 People’s Republic of China 

出 版 物：《Physical Review Letters》 (Phys Rev Lett)

年 卷 期：2024年第132卷第17期

页      面：176703-176703页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC, (52025012, 12334007, T2394473, 22225305, 12374112) National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC National Key Research and Development Program of China, NKRDPC, (2022YFA1403602) National Key Research and Development Program of China, NKRDPC 

主　　题：Antiferromagnetism Spin current Surface & interfacial phenomena Ultrafast magnetic effects Antiferromagnets Terahertz techniques Ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy 

摘      要：We report the picosecond spin current generation from the interface between a heavy metal and a vicinal antiferromagnet insulator Cr2O3 by laser pulses at room temperature and zero magnetic field. It is converted into a detectable terahertz emission in the heavy metal via the inverse spin Hall effect. The vicinal interfaces are apparently the source of the picosecond spin current, as evidenced by the proportional terahertz signals to the vicinal angle. We attribute the origin of the spin current to the transient magnetic moment generated by an interfacial nonlinear magnetic-dipole difference-frequency generation. We propose a model based on the in-plane inversion symmetry breaking to quantitatively explain the terahertz intensity with respect to the angles of the laser polarization and the film azimuth. Our work opens new opportunities in antiferromagnetic and ultrafast spintronics by considering symmetry breaking.