Nearly perfect spin polarization of noncollinear antiferromagnets

Abstract

Ferromagnets with high spin polarization are known to be valuable for spintronics—a research field that exploits the spin degree of freedom in information technologies. Recently, antiferromagnets have emerged as promising alternative materials for spintronics due to their stability against magnetic perturbations, absence of stray fields, and ultrafast dynamics. For antiferromagnets, however, the concept of spin polarization and its relevance to the measured electrical response are elusive due to nominally zero net magnetization. Here, we define an effective momentum-dependent spin polarization and reveal an unexpected property of many noncollinear antiferromagnets to exhibit nearly 100% spin polarization in a broad area of the Fermi surface. This property leads to the emergence of an extraordinary tunneling magnetoresistance (ETMR) effect in antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions (AFMTJs). As a representative example, we predict that a noncollinear antiferromagnet Mn3GaN exhibits nearly 100% spin-polarized states that can efficiently tunnel through low-decay-rate evanescent states of perovskite oxide SrTiO3 resulting in ETMR as large as 104%. Our results uncover hidden functionality of material systems with noncollinear spin textures and open new perspectives for spintronics.