Introduction to nuclear spin waves in ferro- and antiferromagnets

Abstract

Collective nuclear spin excitations, called nuclear spin waves or magnons, are enabled in strongly magnetic materials by the hyperfine coupling of the nuclear and electronic spins in an atom and the exchange interaction between electronic spins of neighboring atoms. Nuclear spin waves attracted the interest of theoretical and experimental researchers worldwide about four to five decades ago and then waned. Very recently, two experimental reports of nuclear spintronic effects in the canted antiferromagnet MnCO3 have shown that spin currents can be generated using nuclear spin states, bridging two quite separate worlds, one of nuclear spin excitations and the other of spintronics. In this Tutorial, we briefly review the basic concepts and properties of nuclear spin waves in ferro- and antiferromagnetic (AF) materials and present a few significant experimental results obtained some time ago with the uniaxial anisotropy AF MnF2 and the cubic anisotropy AF RbMnF3 and compare them with theory. We also briefly present the recent experimental observations of the nuclear spin pumping effect and the nuclear spin Seebeck effect in the canted antiferromagnet MnCO3. Other possible AF candidates for studies of nuclear spintronic effects are discussed.