  This focused issue attempts to provide a comprehensive introduction into the
field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. Apart from the brief overview below, it
features five review articles. The intention is to cover in a coherent and
complementary way key physical aspects of the antiferromagnetic spintronics
research. These range from microelectronic memory devices and optical
manipulation and detection of antiferromagnetic spins, to the fundamentals of
antiferromagnetic dynamics in uniform or spin-textured systems, and to the
interplay of antiferromagnetic spintronics with topological phenomena. The
antiferromagnetic ordering can take a number of forms including fully
compensated collinear, non-collinear, and non-coplanar magnetic lattices,
compensated and uncompensated ferrimagnets, or metamagnetic materials hosting
an antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition. Apart from the variety
of distinct magnetic crystal structures, the focused issue also encompasses
spintronic phenomena and devices studied in antiferromagnet/ferromagnet
heterostructures and in synthetic antiferromagnets.
