We experimentally investigate the origin of the two-magnon scattering (TMS) in heavy-metal (HM)/ferromagnet (FM)/oxide heterostructures (FM = Co, Ni81Fe19, or Fe60Co20B20) by varying the materials located above and below the FM layers. We show that strong TMS in HM/FM/oxide systems arises primarily at the HM/FM interface and increases with the strength of interfacial spin-orbit coupling and magnetic roughness at this interface. TMS at the FM/oxide interface is relatively weak, even in systems where spin-orbit coupling at this interface generates strong interfacial magnetic anisotropy. We also suggest that the spin-current-induced excitation of non-uniform short-wavelength magnon at the HM/FM interface may function as a mechanism of spin memory loss for the spin-orbit torque exerted on the uniform mode.
We investigate a spin-electricity conversion effect in a topological insulator/ferromagnet heterostructure. In the spin-momentum-locked surface state, an electric current generates nonequilibrium spin accumulation, which causes a spin-orbit torque that acts on the ferromagnet. When spins in the ferromagnet are completely parallel to the accumulated spin, this spin-orbit torque is zero. In the presence of spin excitations, however, a coupling between magnons and electrons enables us to obtain a nonvanishing torque. In this paper, we consider a model of the heterostructure in which a three-dimen…
We formulate a microscopic linear response theory of nonequilibrium magnonic torques and magnon pumping applicable to multiple-magnonic-band uniform ferromagnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. From the linear response theory, we identify the extrinsic and intrinsic contributions where the latter is expressed via the Berry curvature of magnonic bands. We observe that in the presence of a time-dependent magnetization Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions can act as fictitious electric fields acting on magnons. We study various current responses to this fictitious field and analyze the rol…
We explore possibilities for control of magnons in two-dimensional heterostructures by an external electric field acting across a dielectric barrier. By performing ab-initio calculations for a Fe monolayer and a Fe bilayer, both suspended in vacuum and deposited on Cu(001), we demonstrate that external electric field can significantly modify magnon lifetimes and that these changes can be related to field-induced changes in the layer-resolved Bloch spectral functions. For systems with more magnon dispersion branches, the gap between high- and low-energy eigenmodes varies with the external field…
In a semiconductor hererostructure, the Coulomb interaction is responsible for the electric current drag between two 2D electron gases across an electron impenetrable insulator. For two metallic layers separated by a ferromagnetic insulator (FI) layer, the electric current drag can be mediated by a nonequilibrium magnon current of the FI. We determine the drag current by using the semiclassical Boltzmann approach with proper boundary conditions of electrons and magnons at the metal-FI interface.
Strong coupling between two quanta of different excitations leads to the formation of a hybridized state which paves a way for exploiting new degrees of freedom to control phenomena with high efficiency and precision. A magnon polaron is the hybridized state of a phonon and a magnon, the elementary quanta of lattice vibrations and spin waves in a magnetically-ordered material. A magnon polaron can be formed at the intersection of the magnon and phonon dispersions, where their frequencies coincide. The observation of magnon polarons in the time domain has remained extremely challenging because …
We theoretically show that the magnon wavepacket has a rotational motion in two ways; a self-rotation and a motion along the boundary of the sample (edge current). They are similar to cyclotron motion of electrons, but unlike electrons the magnons have no charge and the rotation is not due to Lorenz force. These rotational motions are caused by the Berry phase in momentum space from magnon band structure. Furthermore, these rotational motions of the magnon give an additional correction term to the magnon Hall effect. We also discuss the Berry curvature effect in the classical limit of long-wav…
In the ferromagnetic insulator with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, we theoretically predict and numerically verify a topological magnon insulator, where the charge-free magnon is topologically protected to transport along the edge while it is insulating in the bulk. Within the bulk band gaps, edge states form a connected loop as a $4π$- or $8π$-period Möbius strip in the wave vector space. As a consequence, the chiral energy current traveling along the corresponding edge is topologically protected from defects or disorders. Using the nonequilibrium Green's function method, we demonstrate t…
We analyze dispersion relations of magnons in ferromagnetic nanostructures with uniaxial anisotropy taking into account inertial terms, i.e. magnetic nutation. Inertial effects are parametrized by damping-independent parameter $β$, which allows for an unambiguous discrimination of inertial effects from Gilbert damping parameter $α$. The analysis of magnon dispersion relation shows its two branches are modified by the inertial effect, albeit in different ways. The upper nutation branch starts at $ω=1/ β$, the lower branch coincides with FMR in the long-wavelength limit and deviates from the zer…
Hybrid magnonics involving coupling between magnons and different quantum particles have been extensively studied during past few years for varied interests including quantum electrodynamics. In such systems, magnons in magnetic materials with high spin density are utilized where the coupling strength is collectively enhanced by the square root of the number of spins to overcome the weaker coupling between individual spins and the microwave field. However, achievement of strong magnon-magnon coupling in a confined nanomagnets would be essential for on-chip integration of such hybrid systems. H…
Relativistic spin-orbit interaction drastically modifies electronic band and endows emergent functionalities. One of the example is the Rashba effect. In noncentrosymmetric systems such as interface and polar materials, the electronic band is spin-splitted depending on the momentum direction owing to the spin-orbit interaction, which is useful for the electric manipulation of spin current. Similar relativistic band-modification is also emergent for spin wave (magnon) in magnetic materials. The asymmetric magnon band dispersion induced by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, which is antisymm…
Owing to its charge-free property, magnon is highly promising to achieve dissipationless transport without Joule heating and thus potentially applicable to energy-efficient devices. Moreover, a kagome lattice, as stacking layers of many magnon ferromagnets, also exhibits valley structure in quasiparticle spectra, which are likely to add a new dimension to magnon excitation. Here, we investigate valley magnon and associated valley modulation in a kagome lattice, with staggered exchange interaction and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The staggered exchange interaction breaks spatial inversion…
In an antiferromagnet (AF) with uniaxial anisotropy, spin-up and spin-down magnons coexist and form an intrinsic degree of freedom resembling electrons. When polarized by an adjacent ferromagnet (F), a magnonic pure spin current can be thermally generated in an AF. We explore thermal magnon transport in an insulating F/AF/F trilayer where propagating magnons inside the AF spacer can transfer angular momenta between the two Fs. We find that a sufficiently large temperature gradient can switch the downstream F via magnonic spin-transfer torque if it is initially antiparallel with the upstream F.…
Topological electronics has extended its richness to non-electronic systems where phonons and magnons can play the role of electrons. In particular, topological phases of magnons can be enabled by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) which acts as an effective spin-orbit coupling. We show that besides DMI, an alternating arrangement of Heisenberg exchange interactions critically determines the magnon band topology, realizing a magnonic analog of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. On a honeycomb ferromagnet with perpendicular anisotropy, we calculate the topological phase diagram, the chira…
We report the experimental observation in thin films of the hybridization of the uniform ferromagnetic resonance mode with nonuniform magnons as a result of the two-magnon scattering mechanism, leading to a frequency-pulling effect on the ferromagnetic resonance. This effect, when not properly accounted for, leads to a discrepancy in the dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance field on frequency for different field orientations. The frequency-pulling effect is the complement of the broadening of the ferromagnetic resonance lineshape by two-magnon scattering and can be calculated using the sa…
Spin and charge are two interrelated properties of electrons. However, most of previous works on topological matter study the electronic and magnonic excitations separately. In this paper, by combining density functional theory calculations with the Schwinger boson method, we determine the topological electronic band structures and topological magnon spectrum simultaneously in the ferromagnetic ground state of the narrow-band-gap CoCu3(OH)6Cl2, which is an ABC stacking Kagome lattice material with fractional occupancy on Cu sites. This material provides an ideal platform to study the interplay…
We determine magnon spectra of an atomic bilayer magnet with ferromagnetic intra- and both ferro- and anti- ferromagnetic interlayer coupling. Analytic expressions for the full magnon band of the latter case reveal that both exchange interactions govern the fundamental magnon gap. The inter and intralayer magnetic ordering are not independent: the intralayer ferromagnetism stabilizes antiferromagnetic inter-layer order. The topology of these exchange-anisotropy spin models without spin-orbit interaction turns out to be trivial.
We calculate magnon lifetime in an easy-plane ferromagnet on a tetragonal lattice in transverse magnetic field. At zero temperature magnons are unstable with respect to spontaneous decay into two other magnons. Varying ratio of intrachain to interchain exchanges in this model we consider the effect of dimensionality on spontaneous magnon decay. The strongest magnon damping is found in the quasi-one-dimensional case for momenta near the Brillouin zone boundary. The sign of a weak interchain coupling has a little effect on the magnon decay rate. The obtained theoretical results suggest possibili…
We analyze resonant magneto-elastic interactions between standing perpendicular spin wave modes (exchange magnons) and longitudinal acoustic phonon modes in free-standing hybrid metal-ferromagnet bilayer and trilayer structures. Whereas the ferromagnetic layer acts as a magnetic cavity, all metal layers control the frequencies and eigenmodes of acoustic vibrations. The here proposed design allows for achieving and tuning the spectral and spatial modes overlap between phonons and magnons that results in their strong resonant interaction. Realistic simulations for gold-nickel multilayers show th…
We study the energy spectrum of magnons in a ferromagnet with topologically nontrivial magnetization profile. In the case of inhomogeneous magnetization corresponding to a metastable state of ferromagnet, the spin-wave equation of motion acquires a gauge potential leading to a Berry phase for the magnons propagating along a closed contour. The effect of magnetic anisotropy is crucial for the Berry phase: we show that the anisotropy suppresses its magnitude, which makes the Berry phase observable in some cases, similar to the Aharonov-Bohm effect for electrons. For example, it can be observed i…
The effects of correlation-induced coupling between spin and charge fluctuations on spin-wave excitations in a band ferromagnet are investigated by including self-energy and vertex corrections within a systematic inverse-degeneracy expansion scheme which explicitly preserves the Goldstone mode. Arising from the scattering of a magnon into intermediate spin-excitation states (including both magnon and Stoner excitations) accompanied with charge fluctuations in the majority spin band, this spin-charge coupling results not only in a substantial reduction of magnon energies but also in anomalous s…
We examine substrate-to-film interfacial phonon drag on typical spin Seebeck heterostructures, in particular studying the effect of ferromagnetic magnons on the phonon-electron drag dynamics at the interface. We investigate with high precision the effect of magnons in the Pt|YIG heterostructure by designing a magnon drag thermocouple; a hybrid sample with both a Pt|YIG film and Pt|GGG interface accessible isothermally via a 6 nm Pt film patterned in a rectangular U shape with one arm on the 250 nm YIG film and the other on GGG. We measure the voltage between the isothermal ends of the U, while…
The recent isolation of two-dimensional (2D) magnets offers tantalizing opportunities for spintronics and magnonics at the limit of miniaturization. One of the key advantages of atomically-thin materials is their outstanding deformation capacity, which provides an exciting avenue to control their properties by strain engineering. Herein, we investigate the magnetic properties, magnon dispersion and spin dynamics of the air-stable 2D magnetic semiconductor CrSBr ($T_C$ = 146 K) under mechanical strain using first-principles calculations. Our results provide a deep microscopic analysis of the co…
We calculate the magnon modes in the presence of a vortex in a circular system, combining analytical calculations in the continuum limit with a numerical diagonalization of the discrete system. The magnon modes are expressed by the S-matrix for magnon-vortex scattering, as a function of the parameters and the size of the system and for different boundary conditions. Certain quasi-local translational modes are identified with the frequencies which appear in the trajectory X(t) of the vortex center in recent Molecular Dynamics simulations of the full many-spin model. Using these quasi-local mode…
We demonstrate experimentally the electrical ballistic electron spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal / tunnel barrier contact into a semiconductor III-V heterostructure. We introduce the Oblique Hanle Effect technique for reliable optical measurement of the degree of injected spin polarization. In a CoFe / Al2O3 / GaAs / (Al,Ga)As heterostructure we observed injected spin polarization in excess of 8 % at 80K.
We predict that spin-waves in an easy-plane ferromagnet have a finite lifetime at zero temperature due to spontaneous decays. In zero field the damping is determined by three-magnon decay processes, whereas decays in the two-particle channel dominate in a transverse magnetic field. Explicit calculations of the magnon damping are performed in the framework of the spin-wave theory for the $XXZ$ square-lattice ferromagnet with an anisotropy parameter $λ<1$. In zero magnetic field the decays occur for $λ^*<λ<1$ with $λ^*\approx 1/7$. We also discuss possibility of experimental observation of the p…
Temperature variation of resistivity and specific heat have been measured for prototypical half-metallic ferromagnets, R_0.6Sr_0.4MnO_3, with controlling the one-electron bandwidth W. We have found variation of the temperature scalings in the resistivity from T^2 (R = La, and Nd) to T^3 (R = Sm), and have interpreted the $T^3-law in terms of the anomalous single-magnon scattering (AMS) process in the half-metallic system.
The correlated motion of electrons in the presence of strong orbital fluctuations and correlations is investigated with respect to magnetic couplings and excitations in an orbitally degenerate ferromagnet. Introduction of the orbital degree of freedom results in a class of diagrams representing spin-orbital coupling which become particularly important near the orbital ordering instability. Low-energy staggered orbital fluctuation modes, particularly with momentum near (π/2,π/2,0) (corresponding to CE-type orbital correlations), are shown to generically yield strong intrinsically non-Heisenberg…
We show that even when spins and orbitals disentangle in the ground state, spin excitations are renormalized by the local tuning of $e_g$ orbitals in ferromagnetic planes of K$_2$CuF$_4$ and LaMnO$_3$. As a result, dressed spin excitations (magnons) obtained within the electronic model propagate as quasiparticles and their energy renormalization depends on momentum ${\vec k}$. Therefore magnons in spin-orbital systems go beyond the paradigm of the effective Heisenberg model with nearest neighbor spin exchange derived from the ground state --- spin-orbital entanglement in excited states predict…
We present the exact spectral function for a single oxygen hole with spin opposite to ferromagnetic order within a one-dimensional CuO$_{3}$-like spin chain. We find that local Kondo-like exchange interaction generates five different states in the strong coupling regime. It stabilizes a spin polaron which is a bound state of a moving charge dressed by magnon excitations, with essentially the same dispersion as predicted by mean field theory. We then examine in detail the evolution of the spectral function for increasing strength of the hole-magnon interaction. We also demonstrate that the $s$ …
Ferromagnetic (FM) manganites, a group of likely half-metallic oxides, are of special interest not only because they are a testing ground of the classical doubleexchange interaction mechanism for the colossal magnetoresistance, but also because they exhibit an extraordinary arena of emergent phenomena. These emergent phenomena are related to the complexity associated with strong interplay between charge, spin, orbital, and lattice. In this review, we focus on the use of inelastic neutron scattering to study the spin dynamics, mainly the magnon excitations in this class of FM metallic materials…
