The topological properties of magnets, encoded in the reciprocal space distribution of the Berry phase, have caused a revolution in our understanding of their transport properties. The discovery that the non-trivial geometry of states in a solid is ultimately related to the orbital properties of electrons allows us to predict from theoretical arguments a pronounced orbital magnetism in various situations ranging from Rashba systems to Chern insulators. Moreover, we demonstrate that a combination of complex geometry in real and reciprocal spaces leads to an emergence of topological orbital magnetism in non-collinear magnets, which overall opens new vistas in large current-induced orbital magnetization response and magnetization manipulation in antiferromagnets. Finally, we predict that in insulating systems with non-trivial topologies the strength of the magneto-electric response as manifested in the magnitude of the current-induced spin-orbit torques and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can exceed significantly that of conventional metallic magnets, which opens new perspectives in dissipationless control of magnetization in magnetic materials.

Date Published: 19 October 2017
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Proc. SPIE 10357, Spintronics X, 103570Z (19 October 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2273819

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10357:
Spintronics X
Henri-Jean Drouhin; Jean-Eric Wegrowe; Manijeh Razeghi; Henri Jaffrès, Editor(s)