Researchers show how to transmit high frequency alternating spin currents using antiferromagnetic spintronics devices

Researchers from Exeter University, in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford, California Berkeley, and the Advanced and Diamond Light Source have experimentally demonstrated that high frequency alternating spin currents can be transmitted by, and sometimes amplified within, thin layers of antiferromagnetic NiO.

The researchers say that these results demonstrate that the spin current in thin NiO layers is mediated by evanescent spin waves, a mechanism akin to quantum mechanical tunnelling. This could lead to more efficient future wireless communication technology based on such antiferromagnetic spintronics devices.