Two-dimensional magnetic insulators can be promising hosts for topological magnons. In this study, we show that ABC-stacked honeycomb lattice multilayers with alternating Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) reveal a rich topological magnon phase diagram. Based on our bandstructure and Berry curvature calculations, we demonstrate jumps in the thermal Hall behavior that corroborate with topological phase transitions triggered by adjusting the DMI and interlayer coupling. We connect the phase diagram of generic multilayers to a bilayer and a trilayer system. We find an even-odd effect amongst the multilayers where the even layers show no jump in thermal Hall conductivity, but the odd layers do. We also observe the presence of topological proximity effect in our trilayer. Our results offer new schemes to manipulate Chern numbers and their measurable effects in topological magnonic systems.
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 propose a new drag phenomenon, an interband magnon drag, and report on interaction effects and multiband effects in magnon transport of ferrimagnetic insulators. We study a spin-Seebeck coefficient $S_{\textrm{m}}$, a magnon conductivity $σ_{\textrm{m}}$, and a magnon thermal conductivity $κ_{\textrm{m}}$ of interacting magnons for a minimal model of ferrimagnetic insulators using a $1/S$ expansion of the Holstein-Primakoff method, the linear-response theory, and a method of Green's functions. We show that the interband magnon drag enhances $σ_{\textrm{m}}$ and reduces $κ_{\textrm{m}}$, whe…
A magnon Nernst effect, an antiferromagnetic analogue of the magnon Hall effect in ferromagnetic insulators, has been studied experimentally for a layered antiferromagnetic insulator MnPS3 in contact with two Pt strips. Thermoelectric voltage in the Pt strips grown on MnPS3 single crystals exhibits non-monotonic temperature dependence at low temperatures, which cannot be explained by electronic origins in Pt but can be ascribed to the inverse spin Hall voltage induced by a magnon Nernst effect. Control of antiferromagnetic domains in the MnPS3 crystal by magnetoelectric cooling is found to mod…
We observe a strong thermally-controlled magnon-mediated interlayer coupling of two ferromagnetic layers via an antiferromagnetic spacer in spin-valve type trilayers. The effect manifests itself as a field-induced coherent switching of the two ferromagnets, which can be controlled by varying temperature and the spacer thickness. We explain the observed behavior as due to a strong hybridization of the ferro- and antiferro-magnetic magnon modes in the trilayer at temperatures just below the Néel temperature of the antiferromagnetic spacer.
Topological Magnon Insulator in Insulating Ferromagnet
在具有Dzyaloshinskiii-Moriya相互作用的铁磁绝缘体中，我们从理论上预测并数值验证了拓扑磁振子绝缘体，其中无电荷磁振子被拓扑保护沿边缘传输，而它在体中是绝缘的。在体带隙内，边缘态在波矢量空间中形成一个连接的环，作为$4π$ -或$8π$ -周期莫比乌斯带。因此，沿着相应边缘行进的手征能流在拓扑上被保护免受缺陷或紊乱。利用非平衡格林函数方法，我们证明了在非平衡稳态下，磁振子携带的能量流只局限于带隙的边缘，并且倾向于沿着带隙的一个边缘向一个方向运动.我们关于拓扑磁振子绝缘体的预言可以在很宽的能量范围内在绝缘铁磁体的薄膜中观察到，如Lu $_2$ V $_2$ O $_7$。
We theoretically study magnon-phonon hybrid excitations (magnon-polarons) in two-dimensional antiferromagnets on a honeycomb lattice. With an in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) allowed from mirror symmetry breaking from phonons, we find non-trivial Berry curvature around the anti-crossing rings among magnon and both optical and acoustic phonon bands, which gives rise to finite Chern numbers. We show that the Chern numbers of the magnon-polaron bands can be manipulated by changing the magnetic field direction or strength. We evaluate the thermal Hall conductivity reflecting the no…
Observation of Dyakonov-Perel-type magnon spin relaxation in uniaxial antiferromagnetic insulators
Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；Quantum Science Center of Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (Guangdong)（粤港澳大湾区量子科学中心（广东））；Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学）；Fudan University（复旦大学）
Thickness-dependent magnon spin transport in antiferromagnetic insulators: Crossover from quasi-three-dimensional to quasi-two-dimensional regimes
Norwegian University of Science and Technology（挪威科技大学）；Eindhoven University of Technology（埃因霍温理工大学）；ENSTA, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（巴黎理工学院 ENSTA）
We study gauge fields produced by gradients of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and propose a model of AFM topological insulator of magnons. In the long wavelength limit, the Landau levels induced by the inhomogeneous Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction exhibit relativistic physics described by the Klein-Gordon equation. The spin Nernst response due to the formation of magnonic Landau levels is compared to similar topological responses in skyrmion and vortex-antivortex crystal phases of AFM insulators. Our studies show that AFM insulators exhibit rich physics associated with topological mag…
Advancing the development of spin-wave devices requires high-quality low-damping magnetic materials where magnon spin currents can propagate efficiently and interact effectively with local magnetic textures. We show that magnetic domain walls (DW) can modulate spin-wave transport in perpendicularly magnetized channels of Bi-doped yttrium-iron-garnet (BiYIG). Conversely, we demonstrate that the magnon spin current can drive DW motion in the BiYIG channel device by means of magnon spin-transfer torque. The DW can be reliably moved over 15 um distances at zero applied magnetic field by a magnon s…
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 experimentally demonstrate generation of coherent propagating magnons in ultra-thin magnetic-insulator films by spin-orbit torque induced by dc electric current. We show that this challenging task can be accomplished by utilizing magnetic-insulator films with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We demonstrate simple and flexible spin-orbit torque devices, which can be used as highly efficient nanoscale sources of coherent propagating magnons for insulator-based spintronic applications.
We propose a magnon realization of 3D topological insulator in the AIII (chiral symmetry) topological class. The topological magnon gap opens due to the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. The existence of the topological invariant is established by calculating the bulk winding number of the system. Within our model, the surface magnon Dirac cone is protected by the sublattice chiral symmetry. By analyzing the magnon surface modes, we confirm that the backscattering is prohibited. By weakly breaking the chiral symmetry, we observe the magnon Hall response on the surface due to open…
We propose magnonic analogs of topological crystalline insulators which possess Dirac surface states protected by the combined symmetry of time-reversal and half translation. Constructing models of the topological magnon systems, we demonstrate that the energy current flows through the systems in response to an electric field, owing to the Dirac surface states with the spin-momentum locking. We also propose a realization of the magnonic analogs of topological crystalline insulators in a magnetic compound CrI$_{3}$ with a monoclinic structure.
We study transport phenomena cross-correlated among the heat and electric currents of magnons and Dirac electrons on the surface of ferromagnetic topological insulators. For a perpendicular magnetization, we calculate magnon- (electron-) drag anomalous Nernst/Seebeck (anomalous Ettingshausen/Peltier) effects and magnon-/electron-drag thermal Hall effects. The magnon-drag thermoelectric effects are interpreted to be caused by magnon-induced electromotive force. When the magnetization has in-plane components, there arise thermal/thermoelectric analogs of anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR). In t…
We investigate the spin transport properties of a topological magnon insulator, a magnetic insulator characterized by topologically nontrivial bulk magnon bands and protected magnon edge modes located in the bulk band gaps. Employing the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert phenomenology, we calculate the spin current driven through a normal metal$|$topological magnon insulator$|$normal metal heterostructure by a spin accumulation imbalance between the metals, with and without random lattice defects. We show that bulk and edge transport are characterized by different length scales. This results in a charac…
Bilayer Heisenberg ferromagnetic insulators hold degenerate terahertz Dirac magnon modes associated with two opposite valleys of the hexagonal Brillouin zone. We show that this energy degeneracy can be removed by breaking of the inversion symmetry (I), leading to a topological magnon valley current. We show furthermore that this current leads to valley Seebeck effect for magnons and is thereby detectable. We perform calculations in the specific example of bilayer CrBr3, where I can be broken by electrostatic doping.
We consider a magnetic insulator in contact with a normal metal. We derive a self-consistent Keldysh effective action for the magnon gas that contains the effects of magnon-magnon interactions and contact with the metal to lowest order. Self-consistent expressions for the dispersion relation, temperature and chemical potential for magnons are derived. Based on this effective action, we study instabilities of the magnon gas that arise due to spin-current flowing across the interface between the normal metal and the magnetic insulator. We find that the stability phase diagram is modified by an i…
Magnon-mediated spin transport across nonmagnetic metal (NM) and ferromagnetic insulator (FI) interface depends critically on electron-magnon coupling. We propose a novel route to enhance electron-magnon coupling dynamically from transport viewpoint. Using non-equilibrium Green's function a theoretical formalism for magnon-mediated spin current is developed. In the language of transport, the effective electron-magnon coupling at NM/FI interface is determined by self-energy of FI lead, which is proportional to density of states (DOS) at NM/FI interface due to nonlinear process of electron-magno…
We develop a linear-response transport theory of diffusive spin and heat transport by magnons in magnetic insulators with metallic contacts. The magnons are described by a position dependent temperature and chemical potential that are governed by diffusion equations with characteristic relaxation lengths. Proceeding from a linearized Boltzmann equation, we derive expressions for length scales and transport coefficients. For yttrium iron garnet (YIG) at room temperature we find that long-range transport is dominated by the magnon chemical potential. We compare the model's results with recent ex…
The fermionic self-energy on the surface of a topological insulator proximity coupled to ferro- and antiferromagnetic insulators is studied. An enhanced electron-magnon coupling is achieved by allowing the electrons on the surface of the topological insulator to have a different exchange coupling to the two sublattices of the antiferromagnet. Such a system is therefore seen as superior to a ferromagnetic interface for the realization of magnon-mediated superconductivity. The increased electron-magnon-coupling simultaneously increases the self-energy effects. In this paper we show how the inver…
Spin-orbit torque (SOT) magnetization switching of ferromagnets with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has a great potential for the next-generation non-volatile magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM). It requires a high-performance pure spin current source with a large spin Hall angle and high electrical conductivity, which can be fabricated by a mass production technique. In this work, we demonstrate ultrahigh efficient and robust SOT magnetization switching in all-sputtered BiSb topological insulator - perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pt multilayers. Despite fabricated by the indus…
Angular momentum transport is one of the cornerstones of spintronics. Spin angular momentum is not only transported by mobile charge carriers, but also by the quantized excitations of the magnetic lattice in magnetically ordered systems. In this regard, magnetically ordered insulators provide a platform for magnon spin transport experiments without additional contributions from spin currents carried by mobile electrons. In combination with charge-to-spin current conversion processes in conductors with finite spin-orbit coupling it is possible to realize all-electrical magnon transport schemes …
Chirally stacked $N$-layer graphene is a semimetal with $\pm p^N$ band-touching at two nonequivalent corners in its Brillioun zone. We predict that an off-resonant circularly polarized light (CPL) drives chirally stacked $N$-layer graphene into a Floquet Chern Insulators (FCIs), a.k.a. quantum anomalous Hall insulators, with tunable high Chern number $C_F=\pm N$ and large gaps. A topological phase transition between such a FCI and a valley Hall (VH) insulator with high valley Chern number $C_v=\pm N$ induced by a voltage gate can be engineered by the parameters of the CPL and voltage gate. We …
The Doppler shift of the quasiparticle dispersion by charge currents is responsible for the critical supercurrents in superconductors and instabilities of the magnetic ground state of metallic ferromagnets. Here we predict an analogous effect in thin films of magnetic insulators in which microwaves emitted by a proximity stripline generate coherent chiral spin currents that cause a Doppler shift in the magnon dispersion. The spin-wave instability is suppressed by magnon-magnon interactions that limit spin currents to values close to but below the threshold for the instability. The spin current…
In this work, we theoretically study the magnon spin transport in easy-plane antiferromagnetic insulators in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. By exactly calculating the magnon spectrum, we find the band splitting due to the magnetic anisotropy can be fully compensated by the external field at a particular strength, which makes its dynamics nearly equivalent to an easy-axis antiferromagnet. As a result, the intrinsic magnon spin Hall effect due to the dipole-dipole interaction, previously predicted in easy-axis antiferromagnets is activated in easy-plane antiferromagnets. The compens…
Magnon transport through a magnetic insulator can be controlled by current-biased heavy-metal gates that modulate the magnon conductivity via the magnon density. Here, we report nonlinear modulation effects in 10$\,$nm thick yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films. The modulation efficiency is larger than 40\%/mA. The spin transport signal at high DC current density (2.2$\times 10^{11}\,$A/m$^{2}$) saturates for a 400$\,$nm wide Pt gate, which indicates that even at high current levels a magnetic instability cannot be reached in spite of the high magnetic quality of the films.
In this Letter we present a comprehensive study of topological magnon bands and thermal Hall effect in non-collinear antiferromagnetic systems on the honeycomb lattice with an intrinsic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. We theoretically show that the system possesses topological magnon bands with Chern number protected edge modes accompanied by a nonzero thermal magnon Hall effect. These features result from non-collinearity of the magnetic moments due to an applied out-of-plane magnetic field. Our results provide an experimental clue towards the realization of topological magnon transports i…
We address the theory of magnon-phonon interactions and compute the corresponding quasi-particle and transport lifetimes in magnetic insulators with focus on yttrium iron garnet at intermediate temperatures from anisotropy- and exchange-mediated magnon-phonon interactions, the latter being derived from the volume dependence of the Curie temperature. We find in general weak effects of phonon scattering on magnon transport and the Gilbert damping of the macrospin Kittel mode. The magnon transport lifetime differs from the quasi-particle lifetime at shorter wavelengths.
One-dimensional (1D) topologically protected states are usually formed at the interface between two-dimensional (2D) materials with different topological invariants. Therefore, 1D chiral interface channels (CICs) can be created at the boundary of two quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators with different Chern numbers. Such a QAH junction can function as a chiral edge current distributer at zero magnetic field, but its realization remains challenging. Here, by employing an in-situ mechanical mask, we use molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize QAH insulator junctions, in which two QAH insul…
Electrical resistivities can be different for charge currents travelling parallel or perpendicular to the magnetization in magnetically ordered conductors or semiconductors, resulting in the well-known planar Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance. Here, we study the analogous anisotropic magnetotransport behavior for magnons in a magnetic insulator Y$_{3}$Fe$_{5}$O$_{12}$. Electrical and thermal magnon injection, and electrical detection methods are used at room temperature with transverse and longitudinal geometries to measure the magnon planar Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresis…
Electronic spin current is convertible to magnonic spin current via the creation or annihilation of thermal magnons at the interface of a magnetic insulator and a metal with a strong spin-orbital coupling. So far this phenomenon was evidenced in the linear regime. Based on analytical and fulledged numerical results for the non-linear regime we demonstrate that the generated thermal magnons or magnonic spin current in the insulator is asymmetric with respect to the charge current direction in the metal and exhibits a nonlinear dependence on the charge current density, which is explained by the …
Spin information carried by magnons is attractive for computing technology and the development of magnon-based computing circuits is of great interest. However, magnon transport in insulators has been challenging, different from the clear physical picture for spin transport in conductors. Here we investigate the lateral transport properties of thermally excited magnons in yttrium iron garnet (YIG), a model magnetic insulator. Polarity reversals of detected spins in non-local geometry devices have been experimentally observed and are strongly dependent on temperature, YIG film thickness, and in…
We theoretically study the effects of strong magnetoelastic coupling on the transport properties of magnetic insulators. We develop a Boltzmann transport theory for the mixed magnon-phonon modes (magnon polarons) and determine transport coefficients and spin diffusion length. Magnon-polaron formation causes anomalous features in the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the spin Seebeck effect when the disorder scattering in the magnetic and elastic subsystems is sufficiently different. Experimental data by Kikkawa et al. [PRL 117, 207203 (2016)] on yttrium iron garnet films can be expl…
We discuss the magnetic and topological properties of bulk crystals and quasi-two-dimensional thin films formed by stacking intrinsic magnetized topological insulator ( for example Mn(Sb$_{x}$Bi$_{1-x}$)$_2$X$_4$ with X = Se,Te, including MnBi$_2$Te$_4$) septuple layers and topological insulator quintuple layers in arbitrary order. Our analysis makes use of a simplified model that retains only Dirac-cone degrees of freedom on both surfaces of each septuple or quintuple layer. We demonstrate the model's applicability and estimate its parameters by comparing with {\it ab initio } density-functio…
Applications based on spin currents strongly profit from the control and reduction of their effective damping and their transport properties. We here experimentally observe magnon mediated transport of spin (angular) momentum through a 13.4 nm thin yttrium iron garnet film with full control of the magnetic damping via spin-orbit torque. Above a critical spin-orbit torque, the fully compensated damping manifests itself as an increase of magnon conductivity by almost two orders of magnitude. We compare our results to theoretical expectations based on recently predicted current induced magnon con…
We theoretically investigate the energy relaxation rate of magnons and phonons near the resonance points to clarify the underlying mechanism of heat transport in ferromagnetic materials. We find that the simple two-temperature model is valid for the one-phonon/one-magnon process, as the rate of energy exchange between magnons and phonons is proportional to the temperature difference between them, and it is independent of temperature in the high temperature limit. We found that the magnon-phonon relaxation time due to the one-phonon/one-magnon interaction could be reduced to 1.48 $μs$ at the re…
We examine the combined effects of a Kekule coupling texture (KC) and a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in a two-dimensional ferromagnetic honeycomb lattice. By analyzing the gap closing conditions and the inversions of the bulk bands, we identify the parameter range in which the system behaves as a trivial or a nontrivial topological magnon insulator. We find four topological phases in terms of the KC parameter and the DMI strength. We present the bulk-edge correspondence for the magnons in a honeycomb lattice with an armchair or a zigzag boundary. Furthermore, we find Tamm-like edge …
The key physics of the spin valve involves spin-polarized conduction electrons propagating between two magnetic layers such that the device conductance is controlled by the relative magnetization orientation of two magnetic layers. Here, we report the effect of a magnon valve which is made of two ferromagnetic insulators (YIG) separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer (Au). When a thermal gradient is applied perpendicular to the layers, the inverse spin Hall voltage output detected by a Pt bar placed on top of the magnon valve depends on the relative orientation of the magnetization of two YIG l…
