The short timescale spin dynamics in antiferromagnets is an attractive feature from the standpoint of ultrafast spintronics. Yet generating highly polarized spin currents at room temperature remains a fundamental challenge for antiferromagnets. We propose a spin circular photogalvanic effect (spin-CPGE), in which circularly polarized light can produce a spin current without net charge current at room temperature, through an "injection-current-like" mechanism in parity-time(PT)-symmetric antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulators. We demonstrate this effect by first-principles simulations of bilayer CrI3 and room-temperature AFM hematite. Our calculations show that the spin-CPGE is significant, and the magnitude of spin photo-current is comparable with the widely observed charge photocurrent in ferroelectric materials. Interestingly, this spin photocurrent is not sensitive to spin-orbit interactions, which were regarded as fundamental mechanisms for generating spin current. Given the fast response of light-matter interactions, large energy scale, and insensitivity to spin-orbit interactions, our work gives hope to realizing a fast-dynamic and temperature-robust pure spin current in a wide range of PT-symmetric AFM materials, including weak-relativistic magnetic insulators and topological axion insulators.
Interface-Controlled Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions based on a metallic van der Waals A-type Antiferromagnet
Hefei University of Technology（合肥工业大学）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR)（科学与技术研究局）；Anhui University（安徽大学）；RMIT University（皇家墨尔本理工大学）
Spectrally Programmable Spin-Polarized Photocurrents in WSe$_2$-NiPS$_3$ Magnetic van der Waals Heterostructures
Bar-Ilan University（巴伊兰大学）；Technical University of Darmstadt（达姆施塔特工业大学）；Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；Center for Advanced Systems Understanding, CASUS, HZDR（先进系统理解中心，CASUS，HZDR）；Yonsei University（延世大学）
Disentangling magnetic and optical contributions in ultrafast dynamics of antiperovskite non-collinear antiferromagnets
Charles University（查理大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学）；Czech Technical University（捷克理工大学）；LoMaRe Technologies Ltd.（洛玛雷科技有限公司）；Jiangsu LoMaRe Chip Technology Co., Ltd.（江苏洛玛雷芯片技术有限公司）
Magnetic and crystal electric field excitations in a spin-orbit coupled frustrated hyperkagome magnet Nd$_3$Li$_3$W$_2$O$_{12}$
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram（印度科学教育研究所特里凡得琅分校）；Technical University of Denmark（丹麦技术大学）；Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH（于利希研究中心有限公司）；RWTH Aachen（亚琛工业大学）；ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory（ISIS中子与μ子源，英国科学与技术设施委员会，卢瑟福阿普顿实验室）
