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Magnonic Faraday Effect: Polarization rotation of spin waves

Written by Thaned Pruttivarasin, Kittiwit Matan, and Taku J Sato

An international team of researchers based in Thailand, USA, and Japan, has conducted a thorough study of an exotic behavior of material called "noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnet." The team reports its finding [1], which shows, for the first time, direct evidence of nonreciprocal magnons by monitoring the propagation of spin waves in magnetic material.

Research Highlights:

  • Nonreciprocal Magnons: Direct observation of different energy-momentum dispersion relations between left-circular and right-circular magnon propagation.
  • Symmetry Breaking: Demonstrated how a lack of spatial inversion symmetry in the crystal structure causes these distinctive states to behave differently.
  • Experimental Proof: Confirmed theoretical predictions through neutron scattering of α-Cu2V2O7 crystals and linear spin-wave calculations.
Magnonic Faraday Effect Diagram

This work opens up a new regime of magnetic material which might find applications in magnon-based electronics (magnonics) such as the spin-wave field-effect transistor [3].

Experimental Data 1
Experimental Data 2

Primary Publication:

[1] G. Gitgeatpong et al., "Nonreciprocal Magnons in a Noncentrosymmetric Antiferromagnet," Physical Review Letters 119, 047201 (2017).

Journal Link arXiv:1702.04889

Related Work:

  • "Magnetic structure and spin dynamics of the quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnet Zn-doped copper pyrovanadate," PRB 106, 214438 (2022). [Link]
  • "Formation of single polar domain in α-Cu2V2O7," J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 90(2), 025003 (2021). [Link]
  • "Nonreciprocal magnons in noncentrosymmetric magnets," J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 88, 081007 (2019). [Link]