Chirality and polarization of inertial antiferromagnetic resonances driven by spin-orbit torques

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the handedness of a resonant mode is an intrinsic property. We show that, by tailoring the polarization and handedness of alternating spin-orbit torques used as the driving force, the polarization state and handedness of inertial resonant modes in an antiferromagnet (AFM) can be actively controlled. In contrast with ferromagnets, whose resonant-mode polarization is essentially fixed, AFM inertial modes can continuously evolve from elliptic through circular to linear polarization as the driving polarization is varied. We further identify an inertia-dependent critical degree of driving polarization at which the mode becomes linearly polarized while its handedness reverses.