Magnon excitations in antiferromagnetic materials and their physical implications enable novel device concepts not available in ferromagnets, emerging as a new area of active research. A unique characteristic of antiferromagnetic magnons is the coexistence of opposite spin polarization, which mimics the electron spin in a variety of transport phenomena. Among them, the most prominent spin-contrasting phenomenon is the magnon spin Nernst effect (SNE), which refers to the generation of transverse pure magnon spin current through a longitudinal temperature gradient. We introduce selected recent progress in the study of magnon SNE in collinear antiferromagnets with a focus on its underlying physical mechanism entailing profound topological features of the magnon band structures. By reviewing how the magnon SNE has inspired and enriched the exploration of topological magnons, we offer our perspectives on this emerging frontier that holds potential in future spintronic nano-technology.
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…
The magnon transport driven by thermal gradient in a perpendicularly magnetized honeycomb lattice is studied. The system with the nearest-neighbor pseudodipolar interaction and the next-nearest-neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) has various topologically nontrivial phases. When an in-plane thermal gradient is applied, a transverse in-plane magnon current is generated. This phenomenon is termed as the anomalous magnon Nernst effect that closely resembles the anomalous Nernst effect for an electronic system. The anomalous magnon Nernst coefficient and its sign are determined by the…
We investigate the intrinsic magnon spin current in a noncollinear antiferromagnetic insulator. We introduce a definition of the magnon spin current in a noncollinear antiferromagnet and find that it is in general non-conserved, but for certain symmetries and spin polarizations the averaged effect of non-conserving terms can vanish. We formulate a general linear response theory for magnons in noncollinear antiferromagnets subject to a temperature gradient and analyze the effect of symmetries on the response tensor. We apply this theory to single-layer potassium iron jarosite KFe$_3$(OH)$_6$(SO…
In this Letter, we study the spin Nernst effect (SNE) of magnons in the nonlinear response regime. We derive the formula for the nonlinear magnon spin Nernst current by solving the Boltzmann equation and find out that it is described by an extended Berry curvature dipole of magnons. The nonlinear magnon SNE is expected to occur in various Néel antiferromagnets without Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In particular, the nonlinear spin Nernst current in the honeycomb and diamond lattice antiferromagnets can be controlled by strain/pressure.
In a collinear antiferromagnet with easy-axis anisotropy, symmetry guarantees that the spin wave modes are doubly degenerate. The two modes carry opposite spin angular momentum and exhibit opposite chirality. Using a honeycomb antiferromagnet in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, we show that a longitudinal temperature gradient can drive the two modes to opposite transverse directions, realizing a spin Nernst effect of magnons with vanishing thermal Hall current. We find that magnons around the Γ-point and the K-point contribute oppositely to the transverse spin transport, …
Giant spin Nernst effect in a two-dimensional antiferromagnet due to magnetoelastic coupling-induced gaps and interband transitions between magnon-like bands
Magnon spin Nernst effect was recently proposed as an intrinsic effect in antiferromagnets, where spin diffusion and boundary spin transmission have been ignored. However, diffusion processes are essential to convert a bulk spin current into boundary spin accumulation, which determines the spin injection rate into detectors through imperfect transmission. We formulate a diffusive theory to describe the detection of magnon spin Nernst effect with boundary conditions reflecting real device geometry. Thanks to the spin diffusion effect, the output signals in both electronic and optical detection …
Magnon spin Hall systems could hardly show experimentally observable particle and thermal transport phenomena intrinsically due to the spin cancellation. Here we demonstrated that the magnon spin Hall systems can exhibit magnon Nernst effect and thermal Hall effect under external magnetic field by considering two typical systems, i.e. the antiferromagnetically (AFM) coupled bilayer honeycomb ferromagnets and monolayer collinear honeycomb antiferromagnet. The both systems experience magnetic phase transitions from AFM phase to a field-polarized phase via a spin-flop (SF) phase or directly. In b…
We predict that a temperature gradient can induce a magnon-mediated spin Hall response in an antiferromagnet with non-trivial magnon Berry curvature. We develop a linear response theory which gives a general condition for a Hall current to be well defined, even when the thermal Hall response is forbidden by symmetry. We apply our theory to a honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet and discuss a role of magnon edge states in a finite geometry.
In the past, magnons have been shown to mediate thermal transport of spin in various systems. Here, we reveal that the fundamental coupling of scalar spin chirality, inherent to magnons, to the electronic degrees of freedom in the system can result in the generation of sizeable orbital magnetization and thermal transport of orbital angular momentum. We demonstrate the emergence of the latter phenomenon of orbital Nernst effect by referring to the spin-wave Hamiltonian of kagome ferromagnets, predicting that in a wide range of systems the transverse current of orbital angular momentum carried b…
Our joint theoretical and computer experimental study of heat-to-spin conversion reveals that noncollinear antiferromagnetic insulators are promising materials for generating magnon spin currents upon application of a temperature gradient: they exhibit spin Seebeck and spin Nernst effects. Using Kubo theory and spin dynamics simulations, we explicitly evaluate these effects in a single kagome sheet of potassium iron jarosite, KFe$_3$(OH)$_6$(SO$_4$)$_2$, and predict a spin Seebeck conversion factor of $0.2 μ\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{K}$ at a temperature of $20 \mathrm{K}$.
In this paper, we present a simple model of a three-dimensional insulating magnetic structure which represents a magnonic analog of the layered electronic system described in [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 107}, 127205 (2011)]. In particular, our model realizes Weyl magnons as well as surface states with a Dirac spectrum. In this model, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is responsible for the separation of opposite Weyl points in momentum space. We calculate the intrinsic (due to the Berry curvature) transport properties of Weyl and so-called anomalous Hall effect (AHE) magnons. The results are co…
We theoretically investigate the magnetoelastic coupling (MEC) and its effect on magnon transport in two-dimensional antiferromagnets with a honeycomb lattice. MEC coeffcient along with magnetic exchange parameters and spring constants are computed for monolayers of transition metal trichalcogenides with Néel order ($\text{MnPS}_3$ and $\text{VPS}_3$) and zigzag order ($\text{CrSiTe}_3$, $\text{NiPS}_3$ and $\text{NiPSe}_3$) by $ab$ $initio$ calculations. Using these parameters, we predict that the spin-Nernst coefficient is significantly enhanced due to magnetoelastic coupling. Our study show…
We predict that a temperature gradient can induce a magnon-mediated intrinsic torque and a transverse spin current in systems with non-trivial magnon Berry curvature. With the help of a microscopic linear response theory of nonequilibrium magnon-mediated torques and spin currents we identify the interband and intraband components that manifest in ferromagnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and magnetic textures. To illustrate and assess the importance of such effects, we apply our theory to the magnon-mediated spin Nernst and torque responses in a kagome lattice ferromagnet.
We theoretically study the intrinsic thermal Hall and spin Nernst effect in collinear ferrimagnets on a honeycomb lattice with broken inversion symmetry. The broken inversion symmetry allows in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction between the nearest neighbors, which does not affect the magnon spectrum in the linear spin wave theory. However, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can induce large Berry curvature in the magnetoelastic excitation spectrum through the magnon-phonon interaction to produce thermal Hall current. Furthermore, we find that the magnetoelastic excitations transport s…
Twistronics is currently one of the most active research fields in condensed matter physics, following the discovery of correlated insulating and superconducting phases in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG). Here, we present a magnonic analogue of tBLG. We study magnons in twisted ferromagnetic bilayers (tFBL), including exchange and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI). For negligible DMI, tFBL presents discrete magnon magic angles and flat moiré minibands analogous to tBLG. The DMI, however, changes the picture and renders the system much more exotic. The DMI in tFBL induces a rich topologi…
We report broadband microwave absorption spectroscopy of the layered antiferromagnet CrCl3. We observe a rich structure of resonances arising from quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic dynamics. Due to the weak interlayer magnetic coupling in this material, we are able to observe both optical and acoustic branches of antiferromagnetic resonance in the GHz frequency range and a symmetry-protected crossing between them. By breaking rotational symmetry, we further show that strong magnon-magnon coupling with large tunable gaps can be induced between the two resonant modes.
In this Letter, we study the magnetic transport in AA-stacked bilayer honeycomb chiral magnets coupled either ferromagnetically or antiferromagnetically. For both couplings, we observe chirality-induced gaps, chiral protected edge states, magnon Hall and magnon spin Nernst effects of magnetic spin excitations. For ferromagnetically coupled layers, thermal Hall and spin Nernst conductivities do not change sign as function of magnetic field or temperature similar to single-layer honeycomb ferromagnetic insulator. In contrast, for antiferromagnetically coupled layers, we observe a sign change in …
We introduce the magnon circular photogalvanic effect enabled by stimulated Raman scattering. This provides an all-optical pathway to the generation of directed magnon currents with circularly polarized light in honeycomb antiferromagnetic insulators. The effect is the leading order contribution to magnon photocurrent generation via optical fields. Control of the magnon current by the polarization and angle of incidence of the laser is demonstrated. Experimental detection by sizeable inverse spin Hall voltages in platinum contacts is proposed.
Antiferromagnetic materials host pairs of spin-up and spin-down magnons which can be described in terms of a magnonic pseudospin. The close analogy between this magnonic pseudospin systems and that of electronic charge carriers led to the prediction of fascinating phenomena in antiferromagnets. Recently, the associated dynamics of antiferromagnetic pseudospin has been experimentally demonstrated and, in particular, the first observation of the magnon Hanle effect has been reported. We here expand the magnonic spin transport description by explicitly taking into account contributions of finite-…
In this work, we study magnon-magnon coupling in synthetic antiferromagnets (SyAFs) using microwave spectroscopy at room temperature. Two distinct spin-wave modes are clearly observed and are hybridised at degeneracy points. We provide a phenomenological model that captures the coupling phenomena and experimentally demonstrate that the coupling strength is controlled by the out-of-plane tilt angle as well as the interlayer exchange field. We numerically show that a spin-current mediated damping in SyAFs plays a role in influencing the coupling strength.
We theoretically investigate topological spin transport of the magnon-polarons in bilayer magnet with two-dimensional square lattices. Our theory is motivated by recent reports on the van der Waals magnets which show the reversible electrical switching of the interlayer magnetic order between antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic orders. The magnetoelastic interaction opens band gaps and allows the interband transition between different excitation states. In the layered antiferromagnet, due to the interband transition between the magnon-polaron states, the spin Berry curvature which allows the t…
The Stern-Gerlach (SG) effect is well known as the spin-dependent splitting of a beam of atoms carrying magnetic moments by a magnetic-field gradient, leading to the concept of electron spin. Antiferromagnets can accommodate two magnon modes with opposite spin polarizations, which is equivalent to the spin property of electrons. Here, we propose the existence of an all-magnonic SG effect in antiferromagnetic magnonic system, where a linearly polarized spin-wave beam is deflected by a straight Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) interface into two opposite polarized spin-wave beams propagat…
We report on experiments demonstrating coherent control of magnon spin transport and pseudospin dynamics in a thin film of the antiferromagnetic insulator hematite utilizing two Pt strips for all-electrical magnon injection and detection. The measured magnon spin signal at the detector reveals an oscillation of its polarity as a function of the externally applied magnetic field. We quantitatively explain our experiments in terms of diffusive magnon transport and a coherent precession of the magnon pseudospin caused by the easy-plane anisotropy and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. This ex…
Temperature gradient in a ferromagnetic conductor may generate a spontaneous transverse voltage drop in the direction perpendicular to both magnetization and heat current. This anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) has been considered to be proportional to the magnetization, and thus observed only in ferromagnets, while recent theories indicate that ANE provides a measure of the Berry curvature at the Fermi energy $E_{\rm F}$. Here we report the observation of a large ANE at zero field in the chiral antiferromagnet Mn$_3$Sn. Despite a very small magnetization $\sim 0.002$ $μ_{\rm B}/$Mn, the transvers…
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…
We theoretically investigate the transport of magnon orbitals in a honeycomb antiferromagnet. We find that the magnon orbital Berry curvature is finite even without spin-orbit coupling and thus the resultant magnon orbital Hall effect is an intrinsic property of the honeycomb antiferromagnet rooted only in the exchange interaction and the lattice structure. Due to the intrinsic nature of the magnon orbital Hall effect, the magnon orbital Nernst conductivity is estimated to be orders of magnitude larger than the predicted values of the magnon spin Nernst conductivity that requires finite spin-o…
We demonstrate the low temperature suppression of the platinum (Pt) spin Nernst angle in bilayers consisting of the antiferromagnetic insulator hematite ($α$-Fe$_2$O$_3$) and Pt upon measuring the transverse spin Nernst magnetothermopower (TSNM). We show that the observed signal stems from the interplay between the interfacial spin accumulation in Pt originating from the spin Nernst effect and the orientation of the Néel vector of $α$-Fe$_2$O$_3$, rather than its net magnetization. Since the latter is negligible in an antiferromagnet, our device is superior to ferromagnetic structures, allowin…
Magnon-photon coupling in antiferromagnets has many attractive features that do not exist in ferro- or ferrimagnets. We show quantum-mechanically that, in the absence of an external field, one of the two degenerated spin wave bands couples with photons while the other does not. The photon mode anticrosses with the coupled spin waves when their frequencies are close to each other. Similar to its ferromagnetic counterpart, the magnon-photon coupling strength is proportional to the square root of number of spins $\sqrt{N}$ in antiferromagnets. An external field removes the spin wave degeneracy an…
We investigate the performance of niobium nitride superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators towards hybrid quantum devices with magnon-photon coupling. We find internal quality factors ~ 20000 at 20 mK base temperature, in zero magnetic field. We find that by reducing film thickness below 100 nm internal quality factor greater than 1000 can be maintained up to parallel magnetic field of ~ 1 T and perpendicular magnetic field of ~ 100 mT. We further demonstrate strong coupling of microwave photons in these resonators, with magnons in chromium trichloride, a van der Waals antiferromagnet, wh…
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…
We theoretically investigate a pure spin Hall current driven by a longitudinal temperature gradient, i.e., the spin Nernst effect (SNE), in a paramagnetic state of a collinear antiferromagnetic insulator with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The SNE in a magnetic ordered state in such an insulator was proposed by Cheng {\it et al.} [R. Cheng, S. Okamoto, and D. Xiao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 217202 (2016)]. Here we show that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can generate a pure spin Hall current even without magnetic ordering. By using a Schwinger boson mean-field theory, we calculate t…
The recent emergence of 2D van der Waals magnets down to atomic layer thickness provides an exciting platform for exploring quantum magnetism and spintronics applications. The van der Waals nature stabilizes the long-range ferromagnetic order as a result of magnetic anisotropy. Furthermore, giant tunneling magnetoresistance and electrical control of magnetism have been reported. However, the potential of 2D van der Waals magnets for magnonics, magnon-based spintronics, has not been explored yet. Here, we report the experimental observation of long-distance magnon transport in quasi-twodimensio…
Nonreciprocal Magnon Hanle Effect in Antiferromagnetic $α$-Fe$_2$O$_3$
Walther-Meissner-Institut, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften（瓦尔特·迈斯纳研究所，巴伐利亚科学院）；TUM School of Natural Sciences, Technische Universität München（慕尼黑工业大学自然科学学院）；Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) and Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学凝聚态物理中心（IFIMAC）和凝聚态物质理论物理系）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）
We generalize the concept of the spin-momentum locking to magnonic systems and derive the formula to calculate the spin expectation value for one-magnon states of general two-body spin Hamiltonians. We give no-go conditions for magnon spin to be independent of momentum. As examples of the magnon spin-momentum locking, we analyze a one-dimensional antiferromagnet with the Néel order and two-dimensional kagome lattice antiferromagnets with the 120$^\circ$ structure. We find that the magnon spin depends on its momentum even when the Hamiltonian has the $z$-axis spin rotational symmetry, which can…
We propose a mechanism for destabilizing or stabilizing Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of interacting magnons in an antiferromagnet. We study how the interaction between magnons affects the magnon BEC in a two-sublattice antiferromagnet without and with an external magnetic field. We show that in the absence of the magnetic field the magnon BEC is destabilized by the attractive interband interaction, which is larger than the repulsive intraband interaction. We also show that in the presence of the magnetic field the magnon BEC is stabilized only if the magnetic field is large enough to make …
The richness in both the dispersion and energy of antiferromagnetic magnons has spurred the magnetism community to consider antiferromagnets for future spintronic/magnonic applications. However, the excitation and control of antiferromagnetic magnons remains challenging, especially when compared to ferromagnetic counterparts. A middle ground is found with synthetic antiferromagnet metamaterials, where acoustic and optical magnons exist at GHz frequencies. In these materials, the magnon energy spectrum can be tuned by static symmetry-breaking external fields or dipolar interactions hybridizing …
Collinear antiferromagnets (AFs) support two degenerate magnon excitations carrying opposite spin polarizations, by which magnons can function as electrons in various spin-related phenomena. In an insulating ferromagnet(F)/AF/F trilayer, we explore the magnon-mediated interlayer coupling by calculating the magnon thermal energy in the AF as a function of the orientations of the Fs. The effect manifests as an interlayer exchange interaction and a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; they both depend on temperature and the AF thickness. In particular, the exchange interaction turns out to be antif…
We formulate a theoretical description of antiferromagnetic magnons and their transport in terms of an associated pseudospin. The need and strength of this formulation emerges from the antiferromagnetic eigenmodes being formed from superpositions of spin-up and -down magnons, depending on the material anisotropies. Consequently, a description analogous to that of spin-1/2 electrons is demonstrated while accounting for the bosonic nature of the antiferromagnetic eigenmodes. Introducing the concepts of a pseudospin chemical potential together with a pseudofield and relating magnon spin to pseudo…
The rich and unconventional physics in layered 2D magnets can open new avenues for topological magnonics and magnon valleytronics. In particular, two-dimensional (2D) bilayer quantum magnets are gaining increasing attention due to their intriguing stacking-dependent magnetism, controllable ground states, and topological excitations induced by magnetic spin-orbit couplings (SOCs). Despite the substantial research on these materials, their topological features remain widely unexplored to date. The present study comprehensively investigates the magnon topology and magnon valley-polarization in ho…
The hybridization of magnons (spin waves) with phonons, if sufficiently strong and comprising long wavelength excitations, may offer a new playground when manipulating the magnetically ordered systems with light. Applying a magnetic field to a quasi-2D antiferromagnet, FePS3, we tune the magnon-gap excitation towards coincidence with the initially lower-in-energy phonon modes. Hybrid magnon-phonon modes, the magnon polarons are unveiled with demonstration of a pronounced avoided crossing between the otherwise bare magnon and phonon excitations. The magnon polarons in FePS3 are primary traced w…
We study a bilayer structure consisting of an antiferromagnetic insulator and a normal metal. An electron current is driven in the normal metal with direction parallel to the interface between the materials. Due to interfacial exchange coupling between the localized spins in the antiferromagnet and the itinerant electrons in the normal metal, a magnon current can then be induced in the antiferromagnet. Using an uncompensated antiferromagnetic interface, creating an asymmetry in the interfacial coupling to the two degenerate magnon modes, we find that it is possible to generate a magnon spin-cu…
Antiferromagnetic skyrmion crystals are magnetic phases predicted to exist in antiferromagnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Their spatially periodic noncollinear magnetic texture gives rise to topological bulk magnon bands characterized by nonzero Chern numbers. We find topologically-protected chiral magnonic edge states over a wide range of magnetic fields and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction values. Moreover, and of particular importance for experimental realizations, edge states appear at the lowest possible energies, namely, within the first bulk magnon gap. Thus, antiferromag…
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…
