Abstract
The pseudo-magnetic field created by a non-uniform unaxial strain is introduced into the antiferromagnetic honeycomb nanoribbons. The formation of magnon pseudo-Landau levels, which appear from the upper end of the spectrum and whose level spacings are proportional to the square root of the level index, is revealed by the linear spin-wave theory. The antiferromagnetic order is gradually weakened along the $y$-direction by the strain. At large enough strength, the system is decoupled into isolated zigzag chains near the upper boundary, and demonstrates one-dimensional magnetic property there. While the quantum Monte Carlo simulations also predict such a transition, this exact method gives a critical point deeper in the bulk. We also investigate the $XY$ antiferromagnetic honeycomb nanoribbons, and find similar pseudo-Landau levels and antiferromagnetic evolution. Our results unveil the effect of a non-uniform unaxial strain on the spin excitaions, and may be realized experimentally based on two-dimensional quantum magnetic materials.
Highlights
Mechanical strain has become a powerful tool to engineer the electronic property of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) quantum materials [1,2,3,4]
Since the pseudomagnetic field (PMF) magnitude is proportional to the gradient of the strain, a PMF should be created by a nonuniform strain [9,10]
Let us first investigate the physical properties of the strained model (1) using linear spin-wave theory (LSWT), where the spin operators are replaced by bosonic ones via Holstein-Primakoff (HP) transformation [35]
Summary
Mechanical strain has become a powerful tool to engineer the electronic property of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) quantum materials [1,2,3,4]. A controlled uniaxial strain can be readily realized in graphene using feasible techniques Such a strain results in a constant gauge field, which shift the position of the Dirac points in opposite directions and can induce a band gap only at unrealistic large strength [7,8]. The formation of PLLs and the evolution of the AF order with the strain are very similar to the Heisenberg case, except that the magnetic order is more robust and persists even at the largest possible strain strength These results are closely related to the 2D quantum magnetic materials and will attract both theoretical and experimental interests.
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