Nonequilibrium spin density and spin-orbit torque in a three-dimensional topological insulator/antiferromagnet heterostructure

Abstract

We study the behavior of non-equilibrium spin density and spin-orbit torque in a topological insulator - antiferromagnet heterostructure. Unlike ferromagnetic heterostructures where Dirac cone is gapped due to time-reversal symmetry breaking, here the Dirac cone is preserved. We demonstrate the existence of a staggered spin density corresponding to a damping like torque, which is quite robust against the scalar impurity, when the transport energy is in the topological insulator surface energy regime. We show the contribution to the non-equilibrium spin density due to both surface and bulk topological insulator bands. Finally, we show that the torques in topological insulator-antiferromagnet heterostructure exhibit an angular dependence that is consistent with the standard spin-orbit torque obtained in Rashba system with some additional nonlinear effects arising from the interfacial coupling.