Propagation of Spin Waves Through an Interface Between Ferromagnetic and Antiferromagnetic Materials

Abstract

Boundary conditions for order parameters at an interface between ferromagnetic (FM) and two-sublattice antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials were obtained in the continuous medium approximation similarly to the approach which allows one to take into account the finite thickness of the FM/FM interface, which is much less than spin wave length. Three order parameters are considered inside an interface of finite thickness with the magnetization $\mathbf{\text{M}}$ of FM, magnetizations of both sublattices $\mathbf{\text{M}}_{1}$ and $\mathbf{\text{M}}_{2}$ of AFM. The uniform and non-uniform exchange between all order parameters are taken into account to the interface energy. Using these boundary conditions, the excitation of a surface evanescent spin wave is considered in AFM when the spin wave in FM falls onto this interface. The coefficients and the phases of transmission and reflection of spin wave through the FM/AFM interface are derived.