THz-Frequency Spin-Hall Auto-Oscillator Based on a Canted Antiferromagnet

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical design for a THz-frequency spin-Hall auto-oscillator using a layered structure of platinum and antiferromagnet, capable of generating tunable THz radiation driven by spin currents.

Contribution

It introduces a novel layered structure design for a THz auto-oscillator based on canted antiferromagnet dynamics influenced by the spin-Hall effect.

Findings

THz frequencies from 0.05 to 2 THz are achievable with realistic currents.

Radiated power can exceed 1 μW at around 0.5 THz.

Power increases with frequency and resonator quality factor.

Abstract

We propose a design of a THz-frequency signal generator based on a layered structure consisting of a current-driven platinum (Pt) layer and a layer of an antiferromagnet (AFM) with easy-plane anisotropy, where the magnetization vectors of the AFM sublattices are canted inside the easy plane by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). The DC electric current flowing in the Pt layer creates, due to the spin-Hall effect, a perpendicular spin current that, being injected in the AFM layer, tilts the DMI-canted AFM sublattices out of the easy plane, thus exposing them to the action of a strong internal exchange magnetic field of the AFM. The sublattice magnetizations, along with the small net magnetization vector $\textbf{m}_{\rm DMI}$ of the canted AFM, start to rotate about the hard anisotropy axis of the AFM with the THz frequency proportional to the injected spin current and the AFM exchange field. The rotation of the small net magnetization $\textbf{m}_{\rm DMI}$ results in the THz-frequency dipolar radiation that can be directly received by an adjacent (e.g. dielectric) resonator. We demonstrate theoretically that the radiation frequencies in the range $f=0.05-2$~THz are possible at the experimentally reachable magnitudes of the driving current density, and evaluate the power of the signal radiated into different types of resonators, showing that this power increases with the increase of frequency $f$, and that it could exceed 1~$\mu$W at $f \sim 0.5$~THz for a typical dielectric resonator of the electric permittivity $\varepsilon \sim 10$ and quality factor $Q \sim 750$.