The importance of the interface for picosecond spin pumping in antiferromagnet-heavy metal heterostructures

Farhan Nur Kholid, Dominik Hamara, Ahmad Faisal Bin Hamdan, Guillermo Nava Antonio, Richard Bowen, Dorothée Petit, Russell Cowburn, Roman V. Pisarev, Davide Bossini, Joseph Barker () and Chiara Ciccarelli ()
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Farhan Nur Kholid: University of Cambridge
Dominik Hamara: University of Cambridge
Ahmad Faisal Bin Hamdan: University of Cambridge
Guillermo Nava Antonio: University of Cambridge
Richard Bowen: University of Cambridge
Dorothée Petit: University of Cambridge
Russell Cowburn: University of Cambridge
Roman V. Pisarev: Russian Academy of Sciences
Davide Bossini: University of Konstanz
Joseph Barker: University of Leeds
Chiara Ciccarelli: University of Cambridge

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Interfaces in heavy metal (HM) - antiferromagnetic insulator (AFI) heterostructures have recently become highly investigated and debated systems in the effort to create spintronic devices that function at terahertz frequencies. Such heterostructures have great technological potential because AFIs can generate sub-picosecond spin currents which the HMs can convert into charge signals. In this work we demonstrate an optically induced picosecond spin transfer at the interface between AFIs and Pt using time-domain THz emission spectroscopy. We select two antiferromagnets in the same family of fluoride cubic perovskites, KCoF3 and KNiF3, whose magnon frequencies at the centre of the Brillouin zone differ by an order of magnitude. By studying their behaviour with temperature, we correlate changes in the spin transfer efficiency across the interface to the opening of a gap in the magnon density of states below the Néel temperature. Our observations are reproduced in a model based on the spin exchange between the localized electrons in the antiferromagnet and the free electrons in Pt. Through this comparative study of selected materials, we are able to shine light on the microscopy of spin transfer at picosecond timescales between antiferromagnets and heavy metals and identify a key figure of merit for its efficiency: the magnon gap. Our results are important for progressing in the fundamental understanding of the highly discussed physics of the HM/AFI interfaces, which is the necessary cornerstone for the designing of femtosecond antiferromagnetic spintronics devices with optimized characteristics.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36166-z

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