Dissipative couplings in cavity magnonics

Abstract

Cavity magnonics is an emerging field that studies the strong coupling between cavity photons and collective spin excitations such as magnons. This rapidly developing field connects some of the most exciting branches of modern physics, such as quantum information and quantum optics, with one of the oldest sciences on Earth, the magnetism. The past few years have seen a steady stream of exciting experiments that demonstrate novel magnon-based transducers and memories. Most of such cavity magnonic devices rely on coherent coupling that stems from the direct dipole–dipole interaction. Recently, a distinct dissipative magnon–photon coupling was discovered. In contrast to coherent coupling that leads to level repulsion between hybridized modes, dissipative coupling results in level attraction. It opens an avenue for engineering and harnessing losses in hybrid systems. This article gives a brief review of this new frontier. Experimental observations of level attraction are reviewed. Different microscopic mechanisms are compared. Based on such experimental and theoretical reviews, we present an outlook for developing open cavity systems by engineering and harnessing dissipative couplings.