All-magnonic Stern–Gerlach effect in antiferromagnets

Abstract

The Stern–Gerlach (SG) effect is well known as the spin-dependent splitting of a beam of atoms carrying magnetic moments by a magnetic-field gradient, leading to the concept of electron spin. Antiferromagnets can accommodate two magnon modes with opposite spin polarizations, which is equivalent to the spin property of electrons. Here, we propose an all-magnonic SG effect in an antiferromagnetic magnonic system, where a linearly polarized spin-wave beam is deflected by a straight Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) interface into two opposite polarized spin-wave beams propagating in two discrete directions. Moreover, we observe bi-focusing of antiferromagnetic spin waves induced by a curved DMI interface, which can also spatially separate thermal magnons with opposite polarizations. Our findings provide a unique perspective to understand the rich phenomena associated with antiferromagnetic magnon spin and would be helpful for polarization-dependent application of antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.