Spin Current Detection in Antiferromagnetic CuMnAs

In this paper, we investigate the spin current to charge current conversion properties of the metallic collinear antiferromagnetic (AF) CuMnAs. Bilayers of Permalloy (Py = Ni81Fe19)/CuMnAs and yttrium iron garnet (YIG = Y3Fe5O13)/CuMnAs were investigated by means of the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) using spin pumping effect and spin Seebeck effect experiments in which a spin-current generated in the ferromagnetic layer is injected into the AF layer. The CuMnAs layers with the thickness in the range of 3–20 nm grown by sputtering have a textured polycrystalline structure in the tetragonal phase. By measuring the ISHE current of each bilayer, we were able to obtain two key spintronic parameters: the spin Hall angle (θSH) and the spin diffusion length (λsd) for CuMnAs, which are θSH=0.009 and λSd=2.7 nm. With this investigation, we show that the unique AF material CuMnAs can be used as a spin-current detector, which opens up new avenues for AF spintronics.