Spin-neutral currents for spintronics

Understand

Electric currents carrying a net spin polarization are widely used in spintronics, whereas globally spin-neutral currents are expected to play no role in spin-dependent phenomena.

• Here we show that, in contrast to this common expectation, spin-independent conductance in compensated antiferromagnets and normal metals can be efficiently exploited in spintronics, provided their magnetic space group symmetry supports a non-spin-degenerate Fermi surface.
• Due to their momentum-dependent spin polarization, such antiferromagnets can be used as active elements in antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions (AFMTJs) and produce a giant tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect.
• Using RuO$_{2}$ as a representative compensated antiferromagnet exhibiting spin-independent conductance along the [001] direction but a non-spin-degenerate Fermi surface, we design a RuO$_{2}$/TiO$_{2}$/RuO$_{2}$ (001) AFMTJ, where a globally spin-neutral charge current is controlled by the relative orientation of the N\'eel vectors of the two RuO$_{2}$ electrodes, resulting in the TMR effect as large as ~500%.