A Correlated Route to Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electronic correlations and external magnetic fields can induce spin-polarized charge transport in collinear antiferromagnets, opening new avenues for antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Contribution

It introduces a correlation-driven mechanism for spin-polarized transport in antiferromagnets, combining doping and magnetic fields to break symmetries and generate spin polarization.

Findings

Correlations induce spin-dependent scattering upon doping.

Magnetic field lifts spin-degeneracy by breaking residual symmetries.

Finite spin polarization arises from combined symmetry breaking.

Abstract

Antiferromagnets offer an attractive platform for spintronics due to their absence of net magnetization and ultrafast spin dynamics, yet their intrinsically spin-compensated electronic structure has traditionally limited their active role in spin transport. Here we identify a minimal, correlation-driven route to spin-polarized charge transport in collinear antiferromagnets. Using the doped antiferromagnetic Hubbard model within dynamical mean-field theory, we show that electronic correlations generate strong spin-dependent scattering upon doping away from half filling, while a uniform magnetic field lifts the residual symmetries that enforce spin-degenerate transport. Only the combined breaking of particle--hole symmetry by doping and of the antiferromagnetic sublattice equivalence by the applied magnetic field converts these dynamical asymmetries into a finite spin polarization of the charge current. Our results establish electronic correlations as an active ingredient for antiferromagnetic spintronics and reveal a correlated analogue of the symmetry-breaking mechanism underlying altermagnetic spin-polarized transport in structurally conventional, collinear antiferromagnets.