Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme
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MA: Magnetismus
MA 27: Spinabh
ängiger Transport II
MA 27.13: Talk
Thursday, March 11, 2004, 18:15–18:30, H22
Persistent Spin Currents in Helimagnets — •Jürgen König1, Jan Heurich2, and Allan H. MacDonald3 — 1Institut für Theoretische Physik III, Ruhr-Universität Bochum — 2Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, Universität Karlsruhe — 3Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin
We study collective spin transport in helimagnets, e.g., in
systems with ground states that possess spiral magnetic order.
It is demonstrated that weak external magnetic fields generate
dissipationless spin currents in these systems, whereas the
spiral ground state in the absence of a magnetic field does not
support collective spin transport. Our conclusions are based on
phenomenological considerations and on microscopic mean-field
theory calculations for an illustrative toy model [1]. We
discuss similarities and differences of these results to our
recent analysis of spin supercurrents in thin film ferromagnets
[2], and we speculate on possible applications of this effect in
spintronic devices.
[1] J. Heurich, J. König, and A.H. MacDonald, Phys. Rev. B
68, 064406 (2003).
[2] J. König, M.C. Bønsager, and A.H. MacDonald, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 87, 187202 (2001).