Atomic-Scale Spin-Wave Polarizer Based on a Sharp Antiferromagnetic Domain Wall

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a sharp antiferromagnetic domain wall can act as an atomic-scale spin-wave polarizer, with polarization-dependent reflection and transmission, enabled by discrete spin Hamiltonian effects.

Contribution

It reveals that discrete spin models predict polarization-dependent spin-wave reflection at sharp domain walls, unlike continuum models, enabling atomic-scale spin-wave polarization control.

Findings

Reflection coefficient increases as domain wall width decreases.

Sharp domain walls reflect one polarization strongly while transmitting the other.

External fields can control the polarization of transmitted spin waves.

Abstract

We theoretically study the scattering of spin waves from a sharp domain wall in an antiferromagnetic spin chain. While the continuum model for an antiferromagnetic material yields the well-known result that spin waves can pass through a wide domain wall with no reflection, here we show that, based on the discrete spin Hamiltonian, spin waves are generally reflected by a domain wall with a reflection coefficient that increases as the domain-wall width decreases. Remarkably, we find that, in the interesting case of an atomically sharp domain wall, the reflection of spin waves exhibits strong dependence on the state of circular polarization of the spin waves, leading to mainly reflection for one polarization while permitting partial transmission for the other, thus realizing an atomic-scale spin-wave polarizer. The polarization of the transmitted spin wave depends on the orientation of the spin in the sharp domain wall, which can be controlled by an external field or spin torque. Our utilization of a sharp antiferromagnetic domain wall as an atomic-scale spin-wave polarizer leads us to envision that ultra-small magnetic solitons such as domain walls and skyrmions may enable realizations of atomic-scale spin-wave scatterers with useful functionalities.