Piezoelectric Strain-Controlled Magnon Spin Current Transport in an Antiferromagnet

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 22; no. 12; pp. 4646 - 4653
• Main Authors: Zhou, Yongjian, Guo, Tingwen, Qiao, Leilei, Wang, Qian, Zhu, Meng, Zhang, Jia, Liu, Quan, Zhao, Mingkun, Wan, Caihua, He, Wenqing, Bai, Hua, Han, Lei, Huang, Lin, Chen, Ruyi, Zhao, Yonggang, Han, Xiufeng, Pan, Feng, Song, Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 22-06-2022
• Subjects: electric field; ferroelastic strain; antiferromagnets; magnon spin current transport
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00405

As the core of spintronics, the transport of spin aims at a low-dissipation data process. The pure spin current transmission carried by magnons in antiferromagnetic insulators is natively endowed with superiority such as long-distance propagation and ultrafast speed. However, the traditional control of magnon transport in an antiferromagnet via a magnetic field or temperature variation adds critical inconvenience to practical applications. Controlling magnon transport by electric methods is a promising way to overcome such embarrassment and to promote the development of energy-efficient antiferromagnetic logic. Here, the experimental realization of an electric field-induced piezoelectric strain-controlled magnon spin current transmission through the antiferromagnetic insulator in the Y3Fe5O12/Cr2O3/Pt trilayer is reported. An efficient and nonvolatile manipulation of magnon propagation/blocking is achieved by changing the relative direction between the Néel vector and spin polarization, which is tuned by ferroelastic strain from the piezoelectric substrate. The piezoelectric strain-controlled antiferromagnetic magnon transport opens an avenue for the exploitation of antiferromagnet-based spin/magnon transistors with ultrahigh energy efficiency.