Anisotropic long-range spin transport in canted antiferromagnetic orthoferrite YFeO$_3$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates long-distance, anisotropic spin transport in the canted antiferromagnet YFeO3, enabled by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and external fields, with decay lengths exceeding hundreds of nanometers.

Contribution

It reveals a new spin-transport mechanism in canted antiferromagnets, expanding the range of materials suitable for spintronic applications.

Findings

Magnon decay length exceeds hundreds of nanometers.

Strong anisotropy in magnon decay lengths observed.

Low magnetic damping confirmed by resonance measurements.

Abstract

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 YFeO$_3$, 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 YFeO$_3$ opens up the possibility of a large and technologically relevant class of materials, i.e., canted antiferromagnets, for long-distance spin transport.