Magnon-phonon interconversion in a dynamically reconfigurable magnetic material

Abstract

The ferrimagnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG) is an important material in the field of magnon spintronics, mainly because of its low magnetic losses. YIG also has very low acoustic losses, and for this reason the conversion of a state of magnetic excitation (magnons) into a state of lattice vibration (phonons), or vice versa, broadens its possible applications in spintronics. Since the magnetic parameters can be varied by some external action, the magnon-phonon interconversion can be tuned to perform a desired function. We present a quantum theory of the interaction between magnons and phonons in a ferromagnetic material subject to a dynamic variation of the applied magnetic field. It is shown that when the field gradient at the magnetoelastic crossover region is much smaller than a critical value, an initial elastic excitation can be completely converted into a magnetic excitation, or vice versa. This occurs with conservation of linear momentum and spin angular momentum, implying that phonons created by the conversion of magnons have spin angular momentum and carry spin current. It is shown further that if the system is initially in a quantum coherent state, its coherence properties are maintained regardless of the time dependence of the field.