Electric Control of Spin Currents and Spin-Wave Logic

Spin waves in insulating magnets are ideal carriers for spin currents with low energy dissipation. An electric field can modify the dispersion of spin waves, by directly affecting, via spin-orbit coupling, the electrons that mediate the interaction between magnetic ions. Our microscopic calculations based on the super-exchange model indicate that this effect of the electric field is sufficiently large to be used to effectively control spin currents. We apply these findings to the design of a spin-wave interferometric device, which acts as a logic inverter and can be used as a building block for room-temperature, low-dissipation logic circuits.
Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, added the LL equation and the discussion on spin-wave-induced electric field, accepted by PRL