English

Generation of Spin Currents by Magnetic Field in $\mathcal{T}$- and $\mathcal{P}$-Broken Materials

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2020-02-27 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

Pure spin currents carry information in quantum spintronics and could play an essential role in the next generation low-energy-consumption electronics. Here we theoretically predict that the magnetic field can induce a quantum spin current without a concomitant charge current in metals without time reversal symmetry T\mathcal{T} and inversion symmetry P\mathcal{P} but respect the combined PT\mathcal{PT} symmetry. It is governed by the magnetic moment of the Bloch states on the Fermi surface, and can be regarded as a spinful generalization of the gyrotropic magnetic effect in P\mathcal{P}-broken metals. The effect is explicitly studied for a minimal model of an antiferromagnetic Dirac semimetal, where the experimental signature is proposed. We further propose candidate materials, including topological antiferromagnetic Dirac semimetals, Weyl semimetals, and tenary Heusler compounds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.00116,
  title  = {Generation of Spin Currents by Magnetic Field in $\mathcal{T}$- and $\mathcal{P}$-Broken Materials},
  author = {Jing Wang and Biao Lian and Shou-Cheng Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.00116},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

4.7 pages, 1 figure