Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen
TT 46: Spin Transport and Orbitronics, Spin-Hall Effects I (joint session MA/TT)
TT 46.3: Talk
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 10:15–10:30, POT/0112
Generation, Transmission, and Conversion of Orbital Torque by an Antiferromagnetic Insulator — •Shilei Ding1,2, Paul Noël2, Gunasheel Kauwtilyaa Krishnaswamy2, Niccolò Davitti2, Giacomo Sala2, Marzia Fantauzzi3, Antonella Rossi2,3, and Pietro Gambardella2 — 1School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore — 2Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland — 3Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Campus di Monserrato S.S. 554, Italy
Orbital currents and orbital torques have recently emerged as powerful tools for controlling magnetization, yet their transport has been studied almost exclusively in metals. We report the first demonstration of orbital generation, transport, and conversion through an insulating antiferromagnet CoO. By inserting CoO between Cu* and Co, we show that orbital transport is preserved and the orbital-torque efficiency is strongly enhanced. Temperature-dependent measurements indicate that orbital transport above the Néel temperature is mediated by thermal fluctuations, while antiferromagnetic order and exchange bias provide additional transport channels at low temperature. These results identify insulating antiferromagnets as effective mediators of orbital angular momentum and highlight transition-metal oxides with unquenched orbital moments as promising materials for efficient spin-orbitronic technologies.
Keywords: Orbital torque; Orital-to-spin conversion; Antiferromagnet