Theory of coherence in Bose-Einstein condensation phenomena in a microwave-driven interacting magnon gas

Abstract

Strong experimental evidences of the formation of quasi-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnons at room temperature in a film of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) excited by microwave radiation have been recently reported. Here we present a theory for the magnon gas driven by a microwave field far out of equilibrium showing that the nonlinear magnetic interactions create cooperative mechanisms for the onset of a phase transition leading to the spontaneous generation of quantum coherence and magnetic dynamic order in a macroscopic scale. The theory provides rigorous support for the formation of a BEC of magnons in a YIG film magnetized in the plane. We show that the system develops coherence only when the microwave driving power exceeds a threshold value and that the theoretical result for the intensity of the Brillouin light scattering from the BEC as a function of power agrees with the experimental data. The theory also explains quantitatively experimental measurements of microwave emission from the uniform mode generated by the confluence of BEC magnon pairs in a YIG film when the driving power exceeds a critical value.