A Correlated Route to Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Abstract

Antiferromagnets offer an attractive platform for spintronics due to their absence of net magnetization and ultrafast spin dynamics, yet their intrinsically spin-compensated electronic structure has traditionally limited their active role in spin transport. Here we identify a minimal, correlation-driven route to spin-polarized charge transport in collinear antiferromagnets. Using the doped antiferromagnetic Hubbard model within dynamical mean-field theory, we show that electronic correlations generate strong spin-dependent scattering upon doping away from half filling, while a uniform magnetic field lifts the residual symmetries that enforce spin-degenerate transport. Only the combined breaking of particle--hole symmetry by doping and of the antiferromagnetic sublattice equivalence by the applied magnetic field converts these dynamical asymmetries into a finite spin polarization of the charge current. Our results establish electronic correlations as an active ingredient for antiferromagnetic spintronics and reveal a correlated analogue of the symmetry-breaking mechanism underlying altermagnetic spin-polarized transport in structurally conventional, collinear antiferromagnets.