Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Recent experiments demonstrate that antiferromagnets exhibit the spin Hall effect. We study a tight-binding model of an antiferromagnet on a square lattice with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and disorder. By exact diagonalization of a finite system connected to reservoirs within the Landauer-B\"uttiker formalism, we compute the transverse spin Hall current in response to a longitudinal voltage difference. Surprisingly, the spin Hall conductance can be considerably larger in antiferromagnets than in normal metals. We compare our results to the Berry-phase-induced spin Hall effect governed by the intrinsic contribution in the Kubo formula. The Berry-phase-induced intrinsic spin Hall conductivity in bulk systems shows the opposite behavior. The intrinsic spin Hall effect is drastically reduced when the exchange couplings become large.
Institution: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G2165927803, G2426431291, G8559989365
OpenAlex ID: W3009300211