Spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals

TL;DR

This paper reviews the properties and potential applications of spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals, highlighting their unique spin and charge transport phenomena and their relevance for advancing spintronics technology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of spin and charge transport in various types of spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals, emphasizing their novel functionalities and future research directions.

Findings

High electrical and thermal conductivities in these metals.

Strong interactions between charge transport and magnetic textures.

Potential for new spintronics applications.

Abstract

Spin-polarized antiferromagnets have recently gained significant interest because they combine the advantages of both ferromagnets (spin polarization) and antiferromagnets (absence of net magnetization) for spintronics applications. In particular, spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals can be useful as active spintronics materials because of their high electrical and thermal conductivities and their ability to host strong interactions between charge transport and magnetic spin textures. We review spin and charge transport phenomena in spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals, in which the interplay of metallic conductivity and spin-split bands offers novel practical applications and new fundamental insights into antiferromagnetism. We focus on three types of antiferromagnets: canted antiferromagnets, noncollinear antiferromagnets, and collinear altermagnets. We also discuss how the investigation of spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals can open doors to future research directions.