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Route towards Dirac and Weyl antiferromagnetic spintronics (Phys. Status Solidi RRL 4/2017)
Author(s) -
Šmejkal Libor,
Jungwirth Tomáš,
Sinova Jairo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201770317
Subject(s) - spintronics , quasiparticle , antiferromagnetism , physics , condensed matter physics , magnetism , dirac (video compression format) , weyl semimetal , quantum mechanics , theoretical physics , topology (electrical circuits) , semimetal , ferromagnetism , superconductivity , band gap , neutrino , mathematics , combinatorics
To fully exploit topological effects in spintronics, one must overcome the need for low temperatures, low dimensionality, and rather challenging compatibility with magnetism. In their Review @ RRL (article no. 1700044 ), Šmejkal et al. describe how spintronics effects can be combined with Dirac and Weyl quasiparticles in antiferromagnets. Prominent examples include the prediction of metal–insulator transition in Dirac semimetal antiferromagnets, the experimentally discovered intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in noncollinear Weyl antiferromagnets and the Quantum Hall effect controlled by magnetism in Dirac quasiparticle antiferromagnets. The authors show that the coupling between the antiferromagnetic order and relativistic quasiparticles not only leads to novel effects but also pushes their limits. Topological antiferromagnets – although externally magnetically invisible – can generate strong intrinsic emergent fields leading potentially to giant dissipationless spintronics effects. The cover picture illustrates an example – Berry curvature field which connects two Weyl points. Owing to the unique symmetries, Dirac and Weyl antiferromagnets (see the exemplary crystal structure) offer radically new perspectives on topological spintronics and open the next era in a topological matter.