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arXiv:2609.16819

Generation of pure spin currents via nonadiabatic quantum pumping in an antiferromagnetic chain

Leila Eslami, Fatemeh Bourbour, Somaieh Ahmadi, Santanu K. Maiti

cond-mat.mes-hallphysics.app-phphysics.comp-phquant-phSubmitted Sep 15, 2026• Announced Sep 16, 2026
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Abstract

In this study, quantum spin pumping in an antiferromagnetic chain driven by time-dependent potential is investigated. The aim is to explore the possibility of generating and controlling spin currents in the absence of external bias and to examine the role of exchange field and periodic driving in the separation of spin-up and spin-down currents. The system is described using a tight-binding model, and spin-resolved currents are calculated employing the Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's function formalism. Two time-dependent potentials with a specific phase difference are applied to the two ends of the chain, while the chemical potentials of both electrodes are set equal. The results demonstrate that in the adiabatic regime (low frequencies), the response of the two spin channels is nearly identical. However, as the driving frequency increases and the system enters the nonadiabatic regime, absorption and emission processes of energy quanta become activated, leading to significant differences between spin-up and spin-down currents. The pumped current exhibits strong dependence on the chemical potential, allowing for the control of both magnitude and direction of the spin current through its adjustment. With increasing frequency, the spin current enhances, and parameters can be tuned such that the charge current nearly vanishes while a considerable spin current persists. This finding indicates the feasibility of achieving nearly pure spin pumping without net charge transfer in the antiferromagnetic chain. The results provide a promising perspective for designing spin-pumping devices based on antiferromagnetic systems.

Comments
17 pages, 6 figures

Related papers

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In this study, quantum spin pumping in an antiferromagnetic chain driven by time-dependent potential is investigated. The aim is to explore the possibility of generating and controlling spin currents in the absence of external bias and to examine the role of exchange field and periodic driving in the separation of spin-up and spin-down currents. The system is described using a tight-binding model, and spin-resolved currents are calculated employing the Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's function formalism. Two time-dependent potentials with a specific phase difference are applied to the two ends of the chain, while the chemical potentials of both electrodes are set equal. The results demonstrate that in the adiabatic regime (low frequencies), the response of the two spin channels is nearly identical. However, as the driving frequency increases and the system enters the nonadiabatic regime, absorption and emission processes of energy quanta become activated, leading to significant differences between spin-up and spin-down currents. The pumped current exhibits strong dependence on the chemical potential, allowing for the control of both magnitude and direction of the spin current through its adjustment. With increasing frequency, the spin current enhances, and parameters can be tuned such that the charge current nearly vanishes while a considerable spin current persists. This finding indicates the feasibility of achieving nearly pure spin pumping without net charge transfer in the antiferromagnetic chain. The results provide a promising perspective for designing spin-pumping devices based on antiferromagnetic systems.
Using the Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's function approach, we investigate charge pumping through a single-stranded helical structure described by a tight-binding model that includes either short-range hopping (SRH) or long-range hopping (LRH). While quantum pumping has been studied in various low-dimensional systems, the detailed behavior of the spectral current and the pumped dc current in helical geometries in the presence of higher-order electron hopping (beyond nearest neighbors) has not yet been systematically explored. Here, we focus on the interplay between helicity and extended hopping ranges, analyzing how they jointly control the energy-resolved and dc pumped currents under time-periodic end potentials. For LRH, the pumped dc current exhibits pronounced plateau-like regions as a function of chemical potential when energy levels are sparsely spaced -- consistent with adiabatic transport -- whereas SRH yields more parameter-sensitive currents without clear plateaus. The plateau stability is controlled by the drive frequency: at higher frequencies, Floquet side-band mixing destroys the plateaus, leading to oscillatory currents. The phase dependence remains nearly sinusoidal, and the current vanishes at zero phase lag, confirming the necessity of out-of-phase potentials. Crucially, in helical systems, the decay exponent (ℓc)(\ell_c)(ℓc​) acts as an effective structural parameter that can tune both the magnitude and sign of the pumped current, offering a geometric knob for controlling quantum pumping. Our findings not only fill a gap in the understanding of spectral and pumped currents in helical systems with extended hopping but also provide tools that can be applied to analyze similar phenomena in other chiral or quasi-one-dimensional systems.
Driven quantum systems are systems in which a set of parameters obeys a time-dependent protocol, both periodic and non-periodic. The study of these systems bridges theoretical advances with experimental realizations in a variety of platforms—these range from quantum dot arrays to molecular junctions to trapped ions. The theoretical study is challenging due to the inherent non-equilibrium nature of the problem. These systems offer an interesting playground for quantum thermodynamics. They can be studied as quantum machines, such as refrigerators, heat pumps or engines. This poses the challenge of redefining the laws of thermodynamics in the quantum realm. This effort implies taking into account the presence of coherence, entanglement and strong correlations with the environment. In this conceptual framework, we attempt to shed new light on specific setups with applications in quantum metrology. In the first part of the Thesis, we present novel results on the thermodynamics and transport properties of quantum dots. After thoroughly introducing the main methods, namely non-equilibrium Green's functions and scattering matrix techniques, we apply these tools to adiabatic charge pumping. In this context, quantum dots, subjected to external periodic driving, act as nano-mechanical engines, transferring charge from a source to a drain. We investigate the conditions under which the pumped charge becomes quantized and how thermodynamic quantities behave in this regime. Next, we will focus on the charge shuttle mechanism in movable quantum dots as an example of a quantum clock. This physical model describes transport through a molecular state bound to two leads by van der Waals forces, with an electric field pushing the molecule from the source to the drain. The periodic oscillations arising from the system's dissipative limit cycle solution provide the basis for time measurement. We examine quantum noise primarily associated with the tunnelling process. In the second part, we propose a quantum clock that utilizes the free energy resources generated by coupling to a quantum battery, consisting of an integrable spin chain driven out of equilibrium by a quench in a chosen parameter. The operating conditions of the clock in the manifold of parameters are examined, leading to the requirement of the crossing of the critical point in the battery. The lifetime of the battery's resources is found to be extensive in its size, even when choosing a global coupling observable in the battery.
We clarify the role of non-adiabatic effects in quantum pumping for a spin-boson system. When we sinusoidally control the temperatures of two reservoirs with |π/2\pi /2π/2| phase difference, we find that the pumping current strongly depends on the initial condition, and thus, the current deviates from that predicted by the adiabatic treatment. We also analytically obtain the contribution of non-adiabatic effects in the pumping current proportional to |Ω3\Omega ^3Ω3|⁠, where |Ω\OmegaΩ| is the angular frequency of the temperature control. The validity of the analytic expression is verified by our numerical calculation. Moreover, we extend the steady heat fluctuation theorem to the case for slowly modulated temperatures and large transferred energies.
We study charge and spin pumping in an interacting one-dimensional wire. We show that a spatially periodic potential modulated in space and time acts as a quantum pump, inducing a dc--current component at zero bias. The current generated by the pump is strongly affected by the interactions. It has a power-law dependence on the frequency or temperature, with the exponent determined by the interaction in the wire, while the coupling to the pump affects the amplitudes only. We also show that pure spinpumping can be achieved without the presence of a magnetic field.
The adiabatic quantum information processing task requires that the evolution of a system must be kept in its instantaneous eigenstate. However, normally the adiabaticity will be ruined due to the interaction between the system and the noisy environment in its long evolution time. Here, in this paper, we show that zero-area pulse control can be used to realize the adiabatic process in a nonadiabatic regime. A concrete example is provided where one spin chain is cut into two chains. The pulse function is applied in the laboratory frame and suitable pulse conditions are obtained numerically. We find that compared with the pulse conditions obtained in the adiabatic frame, the results are similar for low-energy-level systems but tend to deviate when the system's energy level increases. We then obtain the pulse conditions theoretically by writing the control Hamiltonian in the adiabatic frame. It is found that a sequence of pulses with intensities tuned by a time-dependent energy difference is required to guarantee an effective adiabatic speedup.
We consider a quantum ring laterally connected to open one-dimensional leads described within the Luttinger liquid (LL) model and subject to a time-dependent driving magnetic field $\ensuremath{\phi}(t)$. The closed loop is obtained by connecting two points of the LL by a weak link, which is treated exactly to lowest order in perturbation theory. Analytical results for the current across the weak link, as well as in the external circuit and inside the loop, are obtained. We pay special attention to the case of smooth magnetic pulses such that the response of the system is approximately adiabatic. We find that the response to the flux $\ensuremath{\phi}$ is linear only if $\ensuremath{\phi}$ is a small fraction of a flux quantum ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{0}$. By inserting whole quanta, a current goes in the external wires as two bunches, separated by a time proportional to the length of the loop, and a net pumped current in the external wires is produced. This kind of pumping is consistent with the predictions of the corresponding tight-binding model in the uncorrelated limit, but is not destroyed by electron-electron interactions.