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Magnonics

Nanoscale spin waves get excited

Nature Physics (2023)Cite this article

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Disturbances in the orientation of magnetization in a magnet can propagate as spin waves or magnons. A design that makes it possible to optically excite nanoscale spin waves offers a route to developing miniaturized spin-based devices.

Waves manifest phenomena, such as condensation into a phase-coherent state, that offer exciting opportunities for science and technology. However, in order to produce devices that could be competitive with nanoscale incoherent electronics, short wavelengths are required. Nanoscale spin waves have high frequencies in the terahertz regime that are not accessible with typical voltage sources, but could be driven using millimetre-wavelength terahertz radiation. Coherent excitation of waves with nanometre wavelengths has been a challenge as it requires matching both the frequency and wavelength with those of the driving field. Now, writing in Nature Physics, Ruslan Salikhov and colleagues1 have demonstrated that this wavelength matching problem can be solved with a device design that sandwiches a ferromagnet between two metals.

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Fig. 1: Snapshots of short-wavelength waves generated using much larger drives.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) and Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Akashdeep Kamra

  2. Center for Quantum Spintronics, Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Lina G. Johnsen

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  1. Akashdeep Kamra
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  2. Lina G. Johnsen
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Correspondence to Akashdeep Kamra or Lina G. Johnsen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kamra, A., Johnsen, L.G. Nanoscale spin waves get excited. Nat. Phys. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01919-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01919-y

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