Nano resonators in which mechanical vibrations and spin waves can be coupled are an intriguing concept that can be used in quantum information processing to transfer information between different states of excitation. Until now, the fabrication of free standing magnetic nanostructures which host long lived spin wave excitatons and may be suitable as mechanical resonators seemed elusive. We demonstrate the fabrication of free standing monocrystalline yttrium iron garnet (YIG) 3D nanoresonators with nearly ideal magnetic properties. The freestanding 3D structures are obtained using a complex lithography process including room temperature deposition and lift-off of amorphous YIG and subsequent crystallization by annealing. The crystallization nucleates from the substrate and propagates across the structure even around bends over distances of several micrometers to form e.g. monocrystalline resonators as shown by transmission electron microscopy. Spin wave excitations in individual nanostructures are imaged by time resolved scanning Kerr microscopy. The narrow linewidth of the magnetic excitations indicates a Gilbert damping constant of only $alpha = 2.6 times 10^{-4}$ rivalling the best values obtained for epitaxial YIG thin film material. The new fabrication process represents a leap forward in magnonics and magnon mechanics as it provides 3D YIG structures of unprecedented quality. At the same time it demonstrates a completely new route towards the fabrication of free standing crystalline nano structures which may be applicable also to other material systems.
The spin Seebeck effect (SSE) is observed in magnetic insulator|heavy metal bilayers as an inverse spin Hall effect voltage under a temperature gradient. The SSE can be detected nonlocally as well, viz. in terms of the voltage in a second metallic contact (detector) on the magnetic film, spatially separated from the first contact that is used to apply the temperature bias (injector). Magnon-polarons are hybridized lattice and spin waves in magnetic materials, generated by the magnetoelastic interaction. Kikkawa et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. textbf{117}, 207203 (2016)] interpreted a resonant enhancement of the local SSE in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) as a function of the magnetic field in terms of magnon-polaron formation. Here we report the observation of magnon-polarons in emph{nonlocal} magnon spin injection/detection devices for various injector-detector spacings and sample temperatures. Unexpectedly, we find that the magnon-polaron resonances can suppress rather than enhance the nonlocal SSE. Using finite element modelling we explain our observations as a competition between the SSE and spin diffusion in YIG. These results give unprecedented insights into the magnon-phonon interaction in a key magnetic material.
In spintronics the propagation of spin-wave excitations in magnetically ordered materials can also be used to transport and process information. One of the most popular materials in this regard is the ferrimagnetic insulator yttrium-iron-garnet due its exceptionally small spin-wave damping parameter. While the small relaxation rate allows for large propagation length of magnetic excitations, it also leads to non-locality of the magnetic properties. By imaging spin waves their band structure is mapped. In doing so wave vector selection is shown to suppress dispersion effects to a large extent allowing for local measurements of spin relaxation. Moreover we demonstrate even higher control of magnon propagation by employing the wave vector selectivity near an avoided crossing of different spin-wave modes where the group velocity approaches zero. Here local engineering of the dispersion allows constructing magnonic waveguides and at the same time reveals the local relaxation properties.
Spin-phonon interaction is an important channel for spin and energy relaxation in magnetic insulators. Understanding this interaction is critical for developing magnetic insulator-based spintronic devices. Quantifying this interaction in yttrium iron garnet (YIG), one of the most extensively investigated magnetic insulators, remains challenging because of the large number of atoms in a unit cell. Here, we report temperature-dependent and polarization-resolved Raman measurements in a YIG bulk crystal. We first classify the phonon modes based on their symmetry. We then develop a modified mean-field theory and define a symmetry-adapted parameter to quantify spin-phonon interaction in a phonon-mode specific way for the first time in YIG. Based on this improved mean-field theory, we discover a positive correlation between the spin-phonon interaction strength and the phonon frequency.
We present a systematic study of the temperature dependence of diffusive magnon spin transport, using a non-local device geometry. In our measurements, we detect spin signals arising from electrical and thermal magnon generation, and we directly extract the magnon spin diffusion length $lambda_m$ for temperatures from 2 to 293 K. Values of $lambda_m$ obtained from electrical and thermal generation agree within the experimental error, with $lambda_m=9.6pm0.9$ $mu$m at room temperature to a minimum of $lambda_m=5.5pm0.7$ $mu$m at 30 K. Using a 2D finite element model to fit the data obtained for electrical magnon generation we extract the magnon spin conductivity $sigma_m$ as a function of temperature, which is reduced from $sigma_m=5.1pm0.2times10^5$ S/m at room temperature to $sigma_m=0.7pm0.4times10^5$ S/m at 5 K. Finally, we observe an enhancement of the signal originating from thermally generated magnons for low temperatures, where a maximum is observed around $T=7$ K. An explanation for this low temperature enhancement is however still missing and requires additional investigations.
We investigated the effect of an external magnetic field on the diffusive spin transport by magnons in the magnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG), using a non-local magnon transport measurement geometry. We observed a decrease in magnon spin diffusion length $lambda_m$ for increasing field strengths, where $lambda_m$ is reduced from 9.6$pm1.2$ $mu$m at 10 mT to 4.2$pm0.6$ $mu$m at 3.5 T at room temperature. In addition, we find that there must be at least one additional transport parameter that depends on the external magnetic field. Our results do not allow us to unambiguously determine whether this is the magnon equilibrium density or the magnon diffusion constant. These results are significant for experiments in the more conventional longitudinal spin Seebeck geometry, since the magnon spin diffusion length sets the length scale for the spin Seebeck effect as well and is relevant for its understanding.