Voltage control of magnon spin currents in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates voltage control of the spin Seebeck effect in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3, enabling electrical manipulation of pure spin currents for energy-efficient spintronic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a method to electrically control the spin Seebeck effect in Cr2O3 via magnetoelectric coupling, a novel approach for spin current manipulation.

Findings

SSE response in Cr2O3 can be tuned with bias voltage

Magnetoelectric effects influence the SSE in this material

Experimental results align with a magnetoelectric-based model

Abstract

Voltage-controlled spintronic devices utilizing the spin degree of freedom are desirable for future applications, and may allow energy-efficient information processing. Pure spin current can be created by thermal excitations in magnetic systems via the spin Seebeck effect (SSE). However, controlling such spin currents, only by electrical means, has been a fundamental challenge. Here, we investigate voltage control of the SSE in the antiferromagnetic insulator Cr2O3. We demonstrate that the SSE response generated in this material can be effectively controlled by applying a bias voltage, owing to the sensitivity of the SSE to the orientation of the magnetic sublattices as well as the existence of magnetoelectric couplings in Cr2O3. Our experimental results are explained using a model based on the magnetoelectric effect in Cr2O3.