Anomalous spin current anisotropy in a noncollinear antiferromagnet

Abstract

Abstract Cubic materials host high crystal symmetry and hence are not expected to support anisotropy in transport phenomena. In contrast to this common expectation, here we report an anomalous anisotropy of spin current can emerge in the (001) film of Mn3Pt, a noncollinear antiferromagnetic spin source with face-centered cubic structure. Such spin current anisotropy originates from the intertwined time reversal-odd ( $${{{{{\mathscr{T}}}}}}$$ T -odd) and time reversal-even ( $${{{{{\mathscr{T}}}}}}$$ T -even) spin Hall effects. Based on symmetry analyses and experimental characterizations of the current-induced spin torques in Mn3Pt-based heterostructures, we find that the spin current generated by Mn3Pt (001) exhibits exotic dependences on the current direction for all the spin components, deviating from that in conventional cubic systems. We also demonstrate that such an anisotropic spin current can be used to realize low-power spintronic applications such as the efficient field-free switching of the perpendicular magnetizations.