Doppler effect in a solid medium: Spin wave emission by a precessing domain wall drifting in spin current

Abstract

The Doppler effect is a fundamental physical phenomenon observed for waves propagating in vacuum or various media, commonly gaseous or liquid. Here, we report on the occurrence of a Doppler effect in a solid medium. Instead of a real object, a topological soliton, i.e., a magnetic domain wall (DW) traveling in a current-carrying ferromagnetic nanowire, plays the role of the moving wave source. The Larmor precession of the DW in an external field stimulates emission of monochromatic spin waves (SWs) during its motion, which show a significant Doppler effect, comparable to the acoustic one of a train whistle. This process involves two prominent spin-transfer-torque effects simultaneously, the current-driven DW motion and the current-induced SW Doppler shift. The latter gives rise to an interesting feature, i.e., the observed SW Doppler effect appears resulting from a stationary source and a moving observer, contrary to the laboratory frame.