Unidirectional magnetoresistance driven by nonequilibrium antiferromagnetic magnons

TL;DR

This paper reports a large, robust unidirectional magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnetic van der Waals material driven by nonequilibrium magnon accumulation, revealing a new mechanism for nonlinear spin transport in spintronic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel magnonic unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance mechanism in antiferromagnetic heterostructures driven by nonequilibrium magnon chemical potential.

Findings

Magnonic USMR exceeds that of YIG/Pt by over two orders of magnitude.

USMR persists under strong magnetic fields and low temperatures.

Spin transport is dominated by magnon chemical potential gradients.

Abstract

Magnetoresistive effects are typically symmetric under magnetization reversal. However, nonlinear spin transport can give rise to unidirectional magnetoresistance in systems with strong spin-orbit interaction and broken inversion symmetry. Here, we demonstrate that the nonequilibrium magnon accumulation characterized by a finite magnon chemical potential can lead to a large and robust magnonic unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance (USMR) in the weakly coupled van der Waals antiferromagnet CrPS4 in contact with Pt. Unlike conventional magnonic USMR driven by magnetization fluctuations, this effect persists under strong magnetic fields and low temperatures, with a pronounced peak near the spin-flip transition. The magnitude of magnonic USMR in CrPS4/Pt exceeds that of YIG/Pt by more than two orders of magnitude and surpasses the electrical USMR in metallic Ta/Co bilayers by a factor of two. The observed field and temperature dependence indicates that spin transport is dominated by magnon chemical potential gradients rather than thermal- or fluctuation-driven magnon generation. These findings establish a new mechanism for nonlinear magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic van der Waals heterostructures and open a route to magnon-based antiferromagnetic spintronic functionalities in two-terminal device geometries.