A class of antiferromagnets with spin-polarized electron bands, yet zero net magnetization, called altermagnets, is attracting increasing attention due to their potential use in spintronics. Here, we study spin injection into an altermagnet via spin pumping from a ferromagnetic insulator. We find that the spin pumping behaves qualitatively differently depending on how the altermagnet is crystallographically oriented relative to the interface of the ferromagnetic insulator. The altermagnetic state can enhance or suppress spin pumping, which we explain in terms of the spin-split altermagnetic band structure and the spin-flip probability for the incident modes. Including the effect of interfacial Rashba spin-orbit coupling, we find that the spin-pumping effect is in general magnified, but that it can display a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the spin-orbit coupling strength. We show that there exists an optimal value of the spin-orbit coupling strength which causes an order of magnitude increase in the pumped spin current, even for the crystallographic orientation of the altermagnet which suppresses the spin pumping.

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• Spin pumping
• Antiferromagnets
• Magnetic insulators