Antiferromagnetic Inverse Spin Hall Effect

The inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) is one of the accessible and reliable methods to detect spin current. The magnetization-dependent inverse spin Hall effect has been observed in magnets, expanding the dimension for spin-to-charge conversion. However, antiferromagnetic Neel-vector-dependent ISHE, which has been long time highly pursued, is still elusive. Here, ISHE in Mn2Au/[Co/Pd] heterostructures is investigated by terahertz emission and spin Seebeck effect measurements, where [Co/Pd] possesses perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for out-of-plane polarized spin current generation and Mn2Au is a collinear antiferromagnet for the spin-to-charge conversion. The out-of-plane spin polarization (sigma(z)) is rotated toward in-plane by the Neel vectors in Mn2Au, then the spin current is converted into charge current at two staggered spin sublattices. The ISHE signal is much stronger when the converted charge current is parallel to the Neel vector compared with its orthogonal counterpart. The Neel vector and resultant ISHE signals, which is termed as antiferromagnetic inverse spin Hall effect, can be switched. The finding not only adds a new member to the Hall effect family, but also makes antiferromagnetic spintronics more flexible.