Spin-chirality-driven nonrelativistic Edelstein effects in two-dimensional antiferromagnets

Abstract

Charge current-induced magnetic moment accumulation-Edelstein effect has been extensively attracting attention for its promising applications in spintronics. While most prior works focus on the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) induced Edelstein responses that rely on the presence of heavy elements, the nonrelativistic Edelstein effect (in the absence of SOC) that could be applied in a broader material family has been largely unexplored. Here, we perform a combined group-theoretical and ab initio numerical simulation study to show that vector spin chirality could serve as an effective control parameter of nonrelativistic Edelstein responses in antiferromagnetic system. In addition to spin degree of freedom, we also explore the orbital angular momentum contributions to current-induced magnetic moments (dubbed orbital Edelstein effect), which obey distinct symmetry constraints from the spin counterpart. Microscopically, vector spin chirality k gives rise to electronic and Zeeman-like band-geometric quantities, such as the anomalous spin/orbital polarizability and the Berry connection polarizability, which govern the nonrelativistic Edelstein responses. Our work identifies vector spin chirality as a key magnetic order parameter to enable and tune nonrelativistic Edelstein effects, and uncovers a new route toward electrically controlling magnetization without relying on SOC effect.