Magnons, the quanta of spin waves, are magnetic excitations of matter spanning through the entire crystal's Brillouin zone and covering a wide range of frequencies ranging from subgigahertz to terahertz. Magnons play a crucial role in many phenomena, such as the reduction of saturation magnetization with increasing temperature or the Bose-Einstein condensation. However, established experimental techniques cannot resolve magnons with wave vectors between 30 and 300 rad μm-1. We address this gap by tailoring the Brillouin light scattering process with dielectric periodic nanostripes hosting Mie resonances. This approach enables access to the previously unmeasurable wave vector range while providing at the same time full wave vector resolution, all within a tabletop setup. Filling this gap can stimulate further experimental investigations of the fundamental phenomena associated with magnons as well as applications in computational and microwave devices. In addition, the same methodology can be applied to other excitations of matter, such as phonons, opening up possibilities in, e.g., mechanobiological studies.

CEITEC BUT Brno University of Technology Purkyňova 123 Brno 612 00 Czech Republic

Institute of Physical Engineering Brno University of Technology Technická 2 Brno 616 69 Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Wang Q., Csaba G., Verba R., Chumak A. V., Pirro P., Nanoscale magnonic networks. Phys. Rev. Appl. 21, 040503 (2024).

Chumak A. V., Vasyuchka V., Serga A., Hillebrands B., Magnon spintronics. Nat. Phys. 11, 453–461 (2015).

Wojewoda O., Hula T., Flajšman L., Vaňatka M., Gloss J., Holobrádek J., Staňo M., Stienen S., Körber L., Schultheiss K., Schmid M., Schultheiss H., Urbánek M., Propagation of spin waves through a Néel domain wall. Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 022405 (2020).

Flebus B., Rezende S. M., Grundler D., Barman A., Recent advances in magnonics. J. Appl. Phys. 133, 160401 (2023).

Klíma J., Wojewoda O., Roučka V., Molnár T., Holobrádek J., Urbánek M., Zero-field spin wave turns. Appl. Phys. Lett. 124, 112404 (2024).

Branford W., Han X., Zhang S., Materials, physics, and devices of magnonics. Appl. Phys. Lett. 125, 200402 (2024).

Wojewoda O., Holobrádek J., Pavelka D., Pribytova E., Krčma J., Klíma J., Panda J., Michalička J., Lednická T., Chumak A. V., Urbanek M., Unidirectional propagation of zero-momentum magnons. Appl. Phys. Lett. 125, 132401 (2024).

Sebastian T., Schultheiss K., Obry B., Hillebrands B., Schultheiss H., Micro-focused Brillouin light scattering: Imaging spin waves at the nanoscale. Front. Phys. 3, 35 (2015).

M. Madami, G. Gubbiotti, S. Tacchi, G. Carlotti,

Wojewoda O., Hrtoň M., Urbánek M., Modeling of microfocused Brillouin light scattering spectra. Phys. Rev. B 110, 224428 (2024).

Flajšman L., Wojewoda O., Qin H., Davídková K., Urbánek M., Van Dijken S., Wideband Brillouin light scattering analysis of spin waves excited by a white-noise RF generator. Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 232402 (2022).

Ogasawara T., Time-resolved vector-field imaging of spin-wave propagation in permalloy stripes using wide-field magneto-optical kerr microscopy. Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 024010 (2023).

Stigloher J., Decker M., Körner H., Tanabe K., Moriyama T., Taniguchi T., Hata H., Madami M., Gubbiotti G., Kobayashi K., Ono T., Back C. H., Snell’s law for spin waves. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 037204 (2016). PubMed

Qin H., Holländer R. B., Flajšman L., Hermann F., Dreyer R., Woltersdorf G., Van Dijken S., Nanoscale magnonic Fabry-Pérot resonator for low-loss spin-wave manipulation. Nat. Commun. 12, 2293 (2021). PubMed PMC

Sluka V., Schneider T., Gallardo R. A., Kákay A., Weigand M., Warnatz T., Mattheis R., Roldán-Molina A., Landeros P., Tiberkevich V., Slavin A., Schütz G., Erbe A., Deac A., Lindner J., Raabe J., Fassbender J., Wintz S., Emission and propagation of 1D and 2D spin waves with nanoscale wavelengths in anisotropic spin textures. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 328–333 (2019). PubMed

Vaňatka M., Szulc K., Wojewoda O., Dubs C., Chumak A. V., Krawczyk M., Dobrovolskiy O. V., Kłos J. W., Urbánek M., Spin-wave dispersion measurement by variable-gap propagating spin-wave spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Appl. 16, 054033 (2021).

Devolder T., Propagating-spin-wave spectroscopy using inductive antennas: Conditions for unidirectional energy flow. Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 054057 (2023).

Van der Sar T., Casola F., Walsworth R., Yacoby A., Nanometre-scale probing of spin waves using single electron spins. Nat. Commun. 6, 7886 (2015). PubMed PMC

Šmejkal L., Marmodoro A., Ahn K.-H., González-Hernández R., Turek I., Mankovsky S., Ebert H., D’Souza S. W., Šipr O., Sinova J., Jungwirth T., Chiral magnons in altermagnetic RuO PubMed

Liu Z., Ozeki M., Asai S., Itoh S., Masuda T., Chiral split magnon in altermagnetic MnTe. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 156702 (2024). PubMed

Schlappa J., Wohlfeld K., Zhou K. J., Mourigal M., Haverkort M. W., Strocov V. N., Hozoi L., Monney C., Nishimoto S., Singh S., Revcolevschi A., Caux J. S., Patthey L., Rønnow H. M., van den Brink J., Schmitt T., Spin–orbital separation in the quasi-one-dimensional Mott insulator Sr PubMed

Ament L. J. P., Van Veenendaal M., Devereaux T. P., Hill J. P., Van Den Brink J., Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering studies of elementary excitations. Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 705–767 (2011).

Mook H. A., Paul D. M., Neutron-scattering measurement of the spin-wave spectra for nickel. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 227–229 (1985). PubMed

Plant J. S., Spinwave dispersion curves for yttrium iron garnet. J. Phys. C Solid State Phys. 10, 4805–4814 (1977).

Zakeri K., Von Faber A., Giant spin-orbit induced magnon nonreciprocity in ultrathin ferromagnets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 126702 (2024). PubMed

Mayr S., Förster J., Finizio S., Schultheiss K., Gallardo R. A., Narkovicz R., Dieterle G., Semisalova A., Bailey J., Kirk E., Suszka A., Lindner J., Gräfe J., Raabe J., Schütz G., Weigand M., Stoll H., Wintz S., Time-resolved x-ray imaging of nanoscale spin-wave dynamics at multi-GHz frequencies using low-alpha synchrotron operation. Appl. Phys. Rev. 11, 041411 (2024).

Liu C., Chen J., Liu T., Heimbach F., Yu H., Xiao Y., Hu J., Liu M., Chang H., Stueckler T., Tu S., Zhang Y., Zhang Y., Gao P., Liao Z., Yu D., Xia K., Lei N., Zhao W., Wu M., Long-distance propagation of short-wavelength spin waves. Nat. Commun. 9, 738 (2018). PubMed PMC

Yu H., Duerr G., Huber R., Bahr M., Schwarze T., Brandl F., Grundler D., Omnidirectional spin-wave nanograting coupler. Nat. Commun. 4, 2702 (2013). PubMed PMC

Baumgaertl K., Gräfe J., Che P., Mucchietto A., Förster J., Träger N., Bechtel M., Weigand M., Schütz G., Grundler D., Nanoimaging of ultrashort magnon emission by ferromagnetic grating couplers at GHz frequencies. Nano Lett. 20, 7281–7286 (2020). PubMed PMC

Lindsay S. M., Anderson M. W., Sandercock J. R., Construction and alignment of a high performance multipass vernier tandem Fabry–Perot interferometer. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 52, 1478–1486 (1981).

S. Chagnon-Lessard, I. J. Miller, J. Hunter, K. Gourley, H. Jean-Ruel, in

Scarponi F., Mattana S., Corezzi S., Caponi S., Comez L., Sassi P., Morresi A., Paolantoni M., Urbanelli L., Emiliani C., Roscini L., Corte L., Cardinali G., Palombo F., Sandercock J. R., Fioretto D., High-performance versatile setup for simultaneous Brillouin-Raman microspectroscopy. Phys. Rev. X 7, 031015 (2017).

Jersch J., Demidov V. E., Fuchs H., Rott K., Krzysteczko P., Münchenberger J., Reiss G., Demokritov S. O., Mapping of localized spin-wave excitations by near-field Brillouin light scattering. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 152502 (2010).

Freeman R., Lemasters R., Kalejaiye T., Wang F., Chen G., Ding J., Wu M., Demidov V. E., Demokritov S. O., Harutyunyan H., Urazhdin S., Brillouin light scattering of spin waves inaccessible with free-space light. Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 033427 (2020).

Lozovski V., Chumak A. V., Plasmon-enhanced Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy for magnetic systems: Theoretical model. Phys. Rev. B 110, 184419 (2024).

Wojewoda O., Ligmajer F., Hrtoň M., Klíma J., Dhankhar M., Davídková K., Staňo M., Holobrádek J., Krčma J., Zlámal J., Šikola T., Urbánek M., Observing high-k magnons with Mie-resonance-enhanced Brillouin light scattering. Commun. Phys. 6, 94 (2023).

Wojewoda O., Hrtoň M., Dhankhar M., Krčma J., Davídková K., Klíma J., Holobrádek J., Ligmajer F., Šikola T., Urbánek M., Phase-resolved optical characterization of nanoscale spin waves. Appl. Phys. Lett. 122, 202405 (2023).

Miedaner P. R., Berndt N., Deschamps J., Urazhdin S., Khatu N., Fainozzi D., Brioschi M., Carrara P., Cucini R., Rossi G., Wittrock S., Ksenzov D., Mincigrucci R., Bencivenga F., Foglia L., Paltanin E., Bonetti S., Engel D., Schick D., Gutt C., Comin R., Nelson K. A., Maznev A. A., Excitation and detection of coherent nanoscale spin waves via extreme ultraviolet transient gratings. Sci. Adv. 10, eadp6015 (2024). PubMed PMC

Chumak A. V., Serga A. A., Hillebrands B., Magnonic crystals for data processing. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 50, 244001 (2017).

Chen J., Yu T., Liu C., Liu T., Madami M., Shen K., Zhang J., Tu S., Alam M. S., Xia K., Wu M., Gubbiotti G., Blanter Y. M., Bauer G. E. W., Yu H., Excitation of unidirectional exchange spin waves by a nanoscale magnetic grating. Phys. Rev. B 100, 104427 (2019).

Lucassen J., Peeters M. J. G., Schippers C. F., Duine R. A., Swagten H. J. M., Koopmans B., Lavrijsen R., Optical spin-wave detection beyond the diffraction limit. J. Appl. Phys. 133, 053902 (2023).

Qiu Z. Q., Bader S. D., Surface magneto-optic Kerr effect. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 71, 1243–1255 (2000).

Neuman T., Alonso-González P., Garcia-Etxarri A., Schnell M., Hillenbrand R., Aizpurua J., Mapping the near fields of plasmonic nanoantennas by scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy. Laser Photon. Rev. 9, 637–649 (2015).

Kalinikos B. A., Slavin A. N., Theory of dipole-exchange spin wave spectrum for ferromagnetic films with mixed exchange boundary conditions. J. Phys. C Solid State Phys. 19, 7013–7033 (1986).

J. Klíma, O. Wojewoda,

Choi G.-M., Min B.-C., Lee K.-J., Cahill D. G., Spin current generated by thermally driven ultrafast demagnetization. Nat. Commun. 5, 4334 (2014). PubMed

Prevedel R., Diz-Muñoz A., Ruocco G., Antonacci G., Brillouin microscopy: An emerging tool for mechanobiology. Nat. Methods 16, 969–977 (2019). PubMed

E. D. Palik,

Pierce D. T., Spicer W. E., Electronic structure of amorphous Si from photoemission and optical studies. Phys. Rev. B 5, 3017–3029 (1972).

Tikuišis K. K., Beran L., Cejpek P., Uhlířová K., Hamrle J., Vaňatka M., Urbánek M., Veis M., Optical and magneto-optical properties of permalloy thin films in 0.7–6.4 eV photon energy range. Mater. Des. 114, 31–39 (2017).

Potton R. J., Reciprocity in optics. Rep. Prog. Phys. 67, 717–754 (2004).