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Controlled enhancement of spin-current emission by three-magnon splitting

Nature Materials volume 10, pages 660–664 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Spin currents—the flow of angular momentum without the simultaneous transfer of electrical charge—play an enabling role in the field of spintronics1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Unlike the charge current, the spin current is not a conservative quantity within the conduction carrier system. This is due to the presence of the spin–orbit interaction that couples the spin of the carriers to angular momentum in the lattice. This spin–lattice coupling9 acts also as the source of damping in magnetic materials, where the precessing magnetic moment experiences a torque towards its equilibrium orientation; the excess angular momentum in the magnetic subsystem flows into the lattice. Here we show that this flow can be reversed by the three-magnon splitting process and experimentally achieve the enhancement of the spin current emitted by the interacting spin waves. This mechanism triggers angular momentum transfer from the lattice to the magnetic subsystem and modifies the spin-current emission. The finding illustrates the importance of magnon–magnon interactions for developing spin-current based electronics.

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Figure 1: Ferromagnetic resonance and spin-current detection in YIG/Pt layered system.
Figure 2: The frequency and power dependence of the ISHE voltage and the microwave absorption in YIG.
Figure 3: Spin waves created by the three-magnon splitting measured using BLS.
Figure 4: Schematics of angular momentum flows in the YIG/Pt layered system.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Slavin, E. Saitoh, K. Ando, K. Harii and Y. Tserkovnyak for their valuable discussions. H.K. is grateful to the Royal Society for their financial support via TG102227. S.O.D. acknowledges helpful discussions with B. Koopmans on the conservation of angular momentum in ferromagnets. Work in Münster has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and by the European Union through the STREP Project Master NMP3-SL-2008-212257.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J. J. Thomson Avenue, CB3 0HE, UK

    Hidekazu Kurebayashi, Dong Fang & A. J. Ferguson

  2. Institute for Applied Physics, University of Muenster, Corrensstr. 2-4, 48149 Muenster, Germany

    Oleksandr Dzyapko, Vladislav E. Demidov & Sergej O. Demokritov

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  1. Hidekazu Kurebayashi
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  2. Oleksandr Dzyapko
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  3. Vladislav E. Demidov
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  4. Dong Fang
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  5. A. J. Ferguson
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  6. Sergej O. Demokritov
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Contributions

Sample preparation: H.K., O.D. and D.F.; measurement and data analysis: O.D., H.K. and V.E.D.; interpretation and theoretical calculation: S.O.D. and H.K.; manuscript writing: S.O.D., H.K., V.E.D. and A.J.F. This project was initiated and managed by H.K. and S.O.D.

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Correspondence to Hidekazu Kurebayashi.

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Kurebayashi, H., Dzyapko, O., Demidov, V. et al. Controlled enhancement of spin-current emission by three-magnon splitting. Nature Mater 10, 660–664 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3053

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