Theory of the piezo-spintronic effect

•We study the nature of the piezospintronic effect along both macroscopic and microscopic analysis.•We report on the macroscopic symmetry classes that might render the effect.•Predict additionally a converse piezo-spintronic effect.•We illustrate the geometric theory of piezo-spintronic response.•Apply the theory to two models that display non-trivial piezospintronic behavior.

The theoretical prediction that some materials might develop pure spin currents in response to strain is presented. Such piezo-spintronic effect is studied and shown to be allowed by symmetry in several systems. This mechanism opens up a way to obtain and measure pure spin currents. From a close analogy with the theory of electric polarization and the piezoelectric effect, we show that such piezo-spintronics response can be represented in a geometrical form in terms of spin Berry phases. Additionally, we illustrate the ideas by the use of two toy models that displays a non-trivial piezo-spintronic response and discuss on possible experimental realizations on antiferromagnetic insulators.