Quantum corrections to the conductivity of itinerant antiferromagnets

Abstract

We present a systematic calculation of the effects of scattering of electrons off spin waves on electron transport properties in itinerant antiferromagnetic thin films in two and three dimensions. We study various regimes set by the parameters related to the spin-wave gap, exchange energy, as well as the exchange splitting, in addition to the scales set by temperature and disorder. We find an interaction-induced quantum correction to the conductivity linear in temperature, similar to that obtained recently for ferromagnetic systems within a certain regime of disorder, although the disorder dependence is different. In addition, we explore the phase relaxation rates and the associated weak-localization corrections for both small and large spin-wave gaps. We obtain a wide variety of temperature and disorder dependence for various parameter regimes. These results should provide an alternative way to study magnetic properties of thin antiferromagnetic films, for which neutron scattering measurements could be difficult, by direct transport measurements.