Surface plasmons are the collective electron excitations in metallic systems and the associated electromagnetic wave usually has the transverse magnetic (TM) polarization. On the other hand, spin waves are the spin excitations perpendicular to the equilibrium magnetization and are usually circularly polarized in a ferromagnet. The direct coupling of these two modes is difficult due to the difficulty of matching electromagnetic boundary conditions at the interface of magnetic and non-magnetic materials. Here, we overcome this challenge by utilizing the linearly polarized spin waves in antiferromagnets (AFM) and show that a strong coupling between AFM magnons and surface plasmons can be realized in a hybrid 2D material/AFM structure, featuring a clear anticrossing spectrum at resonance. The coupling strength, characterized by the gap of anticrossing at resonance, can be tuned by electric gating on 2D materials and be probed by measuring the two reflection minima in the reflection spectrum. Further, as a potential application, we show that plasmonic modes can assist the coupling of two well-separated AFMs over several micrometers, featuring symmetric and antisymmetric hybrid modes. Our results may open a new platform to study antiferromagnetic spintronics and its interplay with plasmonic photonics.
Tripartite Phonon-Magnon-Plasmon Coupling, Parametric Amplification, and Formation of a Phonon-Magnon-Plasmon Polariton in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Array of Magnetostrictive/Plasmonic Bilayered Nanodots
We consider a hybrid structure formed by graphene and an insulating antiferromagnet, separated by a dielectric of thickness up to $d\simeq 500 \,nm$. When uncoupled, both graphene and the antiferromagnetic surface host their own polariton modes coupling the electromagnetic field with plasmons in the case of graphene, and with magnons in the case of the antiferromagnet. We show that the hybrid structure can host two new types of hybrid polariton modes. First, a surface magnon-plasmon polariton whose dispersion is radically changed by the carrier density of the graphene layer, including a change…
Strong coupling between antiferromagnetic magnons and spoof surface plasmons
Institute for Advanced Study in Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学高等研究院）；Center for Advanced Quantum Studies and School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学量子前沿研究中心与物理学院）
We theoretically investigate the spin--wave spin current induced by the spin Seebeck effect in magnonic spin tunneling junctions (MSTJs) for arbitrary magnetization directions. We show that the MSTJ functions as a \textit{tunable} spin Seebeck diode in which the tunneling spin current can be turned on and off with high efficiency by controlling the magnetization direction.
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.
Motivated by the recent emergence of a new class of anisotropic 2D materials, we examine their electromagnetic modes and demonstrate that a broad class of the materials can host highly directional hyperbolic plasmons. Their propagation direction can be manipulated on-the-spot by gate doping, enabling hyperbolic beams reflection, refraction and bending. The realization of these natural 2D hyperbolic media opens up a new avenue in dynamic control of hyperbolic plasmons not possible in the 3D version.
Nanoplasmonics exploits the coupling between light and collective electron density oscillations (plasmons) to bypass the stringent limits imposed by diffraction. This coupling enables confinement of light to sub-wavelength volumes and is usually exploited in nanostructured metals. Substantial efforts are being made at the current frontier of the field to employ electron systems in semiconducting and semimetallic materials since these add the exciting possibility of realizing electrically tunable and/or active nanoplasmonic devices. Here we demonstrate that a suitable design of the doping profi…
We study plasmon modes in doped AA-stacked bilayer graphene (BLG) within the nearest-neighbor tight-binding and the random phase approximation. We obtain closed analytical expressions for the polarizability function which are used to obtain the low-energy dispersion relations of and the numerical results for both acoustic and optical plasmon modes. Our result reveal the potential of AA-stacked BLG to be used as a tunable plasmonic device. In particular we find that the long-wavelength acoustic plasmon disperse as $ω_{+}\approx\sqrt{max(|μ|,t_{1})q}$ with a phase space which shrinks and vanishe…
We calculate the dispersion relations for magnon waves on a periodic chain of spherical or cylindrical Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) particles. We use the quasistatic approximation, appropriate when $kd \ll 1$, where $k$ is the wave number and $d$ the interparticle spacing. In this regime, because of the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between the localized magnetic excitations on neighboring particles, dispersive magnon waves can propagate along the chain. The waves are analogous to plasmonic waves generated by electric dipole-dipole interactions between plasmons on neighboring metallic partic…
A superconductor can interact with magnets through the magnetic field which is induced by the supercurrent. However, this interaction is rather weak and requires relatively large magnets to reach a sizable hybridization of microwave electromagnetic modes with magnons. The size of the device can be drastically reduced by means of the large interfacial exchange interaction between spins in a magnet and a superconductor. In the spin-orbit coupled superconductor this interaction can be transmitted to the s-wave condensate through a mixing of triplet and singlet Cooper pairs. In this paper we theor…
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.
Dirac plasmons in graphene hybridize with phonons of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) when the materials are combined in so-called van der Waals heterostructures (vdWh), thus forming surface plasmon-phonon polaritons (SPPPs). The extend to which these modes are coupled depends on the TMD composition and structure, but also on the plasmons' properties. By performing realistic simulations that account for the contribution of each layer of the vdWh separately, we calculate how the strength of plasmon-phonon coupling depends on the number and composition of TMD layers, on the graphene Fermi…
The band inversion has led to rich physical effects in both topological insulators and topological semimetals. It has been found that the inverted band structure with the Mexican-hat dispersion could enhance the interband correlation leading to a strong intrinsic plasmon excitation. Its frequency ranges from several $\mathrm{meV}$ to tens of $\mathrm{meV}$ and can be effectively tuned by the external fields. The electron-hole asymmetric term splits the peak of the plasmon excitation into double peaks. The fate and properties of this plasmon excitation can also act as a probe to characterize th…
By means of high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, we investigate the low-energy excitation spectrum of transition-metal monopnictides hosting Weyl fermions. We observe gapped plasmonic modes in (001)-oriented surfaces of single crystals of NbAs and TaAs at 66 and 68 meV, respectively. Our findings are consistent with theory and we estimate an effective Coulomb interaction strength $α_{\rm eff}\approx0.41$ for both samples. We also demonstrate that the modification of the surface of transition-metal monopnictides by the adsorption of chemical species (in our case, oxygen and hydroc…
We show that surface plasmons of a two-dimensional Dirac metal such as graphene can be reflected by line-like perturbations hosting one-dimensional electron states. The reflection originates from a strong enhancement of the local optical conductivity caused by optical transitions involving these bound states. We propose that the bound states can be systematically created, controlled, and liquidated by an ultranarrow electrostatic gate. Using infrared nanoimaging, we obtain experimental evidence for the locally enhanced conductivity of graphene induced by a carbon nanotube gate, which supports …
Weyl semimetals have recently attracted extensive attention due to their anomalous band structure manifested by topological properties that lead to some unusual and unique physical properties. We investigate novel features of surface plasmon polaritons in a slot waveguide comprised from two semi-infinite Weyl semimetals. We consider symmetric Voigt-Voigt and Faraday-Faraday configurations for plasmon polaritons in two interfaces of waveguide and show that the resulting dispersion is symmetric and the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons is bidirectional. We introduce exotic and novel asym…
We theoretically investigate magnon-phonon hybrid excitations in two-dimensional ferromagnets. The bulk bands of hybrid excitations, which are referred to as magnon-polarons, are analytically shown to be topologically nontrivial, possessing finite Chern numbers. We also show that the Chern numbers of magnon-polaron bands and the number of band-crossing lines can be manipulated by an external magnetic field. For experiments, we propose to use the thermal Hall conductivity as a probe of the finite Berry curvatures of magnon-polarons. Our results show that a simple ferromagnet on a square lattice…
Enhancing light-matter interaction by exciting Dirac plasmons on nanopatterned monolayer graphene is an efficient route to achieve high infrared absorption. Here, we designed and fabricated the hexagonal planar arrays of nanohole and nanodisk with and without optical cavity to excite Dirac plasmons on the patterned graphene and investigated the role of plasmon lifetime, extinction cross-section, incident light polarization, the angle of incident of light and pattern dimensions on the light absorption spectra.
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…
The observation of the electrically tunable and highly confined plasmons in graphene has stimulated the exploration of interesting properties of plasmons in other two dimensional materials. Recently, hyperbolic plasmon resonance modes are observed in exfoliated WTe2 films, a type-II Weyl semimetal with layered structure, providing a platform for the assembly of plasmons with hyperbolicity and exotic topological properties. However, the plasmon modes were observed in relatively thick and small-area films, which restrict the tunability and application for plasmons. Here, large-area (~ cm) WTe2 f…
Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学）；Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter（马普物质结构与动力学研究所）；National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所）
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…
Van der Waals magnets are uniquely positioned at the intersection between two-dimensional materials, antiferromagnetic spintronics, and magnonics. The interlayer exchange interaction in these materials enables antiferromagnetic resonances to be accessed at GHz frequencies. Consequently, these layered antiferromagnets are intriguing materials out of which quantum hybrid magnonic devices can be fashioned. Here, we use both a modified macrospin model and micromagnetic simulations to demonstrate a comprehensive antiferromagnetic resonance spectra in van der Waals magnets near the ultrathin (monola…
We have studied microwave response of a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system (2DES) contacted by two side electrodes. Using kinetic inductance of the 2DES and inter-electrode capacitance, we have constructed a subwavelength 2D plasmonic resonator. We have shown that the resonant frequency of this circuit can be controlled by 2D electron density, external magnetic field, or size of the electrodes. This opens up possibilities for using arrays of plasmonic circuits as tunable components in different frequency ranges.
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…
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…
