Nodal magnon spin current at an antiferromagnet/altermagnet junction

Abstract

We investigate the thermally driven magnon spin current across a junction between a $d$-wave altermagnet (AM) and a ferromagnet (FM) or an antiferromagnet (AFM). The current consists of a component independent of the interface angle and an angularly dependent component with the $d$-wave form. For a sublattice-symmetric interface, the two junctions behave oppositely under reversal of the altermagnetic domain: in the FM/AM junction the angularly dependent component is odd and cancels on averaging over the domains, whereas in the AFM/AM junction the angularly independent component vanishes by symmetry and the angularly dependent component survives the domain average at a fixed Néel vector of the AFM. Both follow from a selective tunneling: a pair of spins bonded across the interface transmits magnons when the spins are parallel and not when antiparallel, which makes the AFM/AM junction a magnon valve: the configuration in which the bonded spins are antiparallel blocks the current up to the sublattice admixture of the magnons. The anisotropic tunneling is detectable as the sign reversal of the current between the interfaces normal to $[310]$ and $[130]$, and the valve reads the Néel vector of the altermagnet relative to that of the antiferromagnet through the magnitude of the current at a fixed interface.