Single Magnon Research Articles

Nonreciprocal magnon blockade based on nonlinear effects.

We present an alternative scheme to achieve nonreciprocal unconventional magnon blockade (NUMB) in a hybrid system formed by two microwave cavities and one yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere, where the pump and signal cavities interact nonlinearly with each other and the signal cavity is coupled to the YIG sphere. It is found that the nonlinear coupling occurs between the pump cavity and magnon modes due to the dispersive interactions among three bosonic modes. Meanwhile, the Kerr nonlinearity is present in the pump cavity. Based on these nonlinear effects, a nonreciprocal magnon blockade could be achieved with the help of the weak parametric driving of the pump cavity. The present work provides an alternative method to prepare single magnon resource, which may be helpful for quantum information processing.

Enhanced magnon blockade in a magnomechanical system

Magnon blockade is one of the effective methods for realizing single magnon sources which have great potential application in quantum information processing and quantum computing. To enhance single-magnon blockade effect, we introduce a two-magnon driving to the magnomechanical system, which is used to form the multipath destructive interference. Our result shows that both the conventional magnon blockade (CMB) and unconventional magnon blockade (UMB) can be achieved due to nonlinear term of the magnon-mechanical oscillator and magnetic parametric amplification term(MPA) induced by two-magnon driving. By setting certain parameters of MPA, we combine the effect of CMB and UMB. As a result, the single-magnon blockade effect is enhanced, and the disadvantage of rapid oscillations of the time-delay second-order correlation function g (2)(τ) with UMB is overcome, which makes high time resolution not necessary in the detection of second-order correlation function.

Quantum-interference-induced magnon blockade and antibunching in a hybrid quantum system

In this work, we study the phenomena of quantum-interference-assisted magnon blockade and magnon antibunching in a weakly interacting hybrid ferromagnet-superconductor system. The magnon excitations in two yttrium iron garnet spheres are indirectly coupled to a superconducting qubit through microwave cavity modes of two mutually perpendicular cavities. We find that when one of the magnon modes is driven by a weak microwave field, the destructive interference between more than two distinct transition pathways restricts the simultaneous excitation of two magnons. We analyze the magnon correlations in the driven magnon mode for the case of zero detunings as well as finite detunings of the magnon modes and the qubit. We show that the magnon antibunching can be tuned by changing the magnon-qubit coupling strength ratio and the driving detuning. Our work proposes a possible scheme that has a significant role in the construction of single magnon generating devices.

Field control of quasiparticle decay in a quantum antiferromagnet

Dynamics in a quantum material is described by quantized collective motion: a quasiparticle. The single-quasiparticle description is useful for a basic understanding of the system, whereas a phenomenon beyond the simple description such as quasiparticle decay which affects the current carried by the quasiparticle is an intriguing topic. The instability of the quasiparticle is phenomenologically determined by the magnitude of the repulsive interaction between a single quasiparticle and the two-quasiparticle continuum. Although the phenomenon has been studied in several materials, thermodynamic tuning of the quasiparticle decay in a single material has not yet been investigated. Here we show, by using neutron scattering, magnetic field control of the magnon decay in a quantum antiferromagnet RbFeCl3, where the interaction between the magnon and continuum is tuned by the field. At low fields where the interaction is small, the single magnon decay process is observed. In contrast, at high fields where the interaction exceeds a critical magnitude, the magnon is pushed downwards in energy and its lifetime increases. Our study demonstrates that field control of quasiparticle decay is possible in the system where the two-quasiparticle continuum covers wide momentum-energy space, and the phenomenon of the magnon avoiding decay is ubiquitous.

Magnon blockade in a strongly coupled nonlinear cavity–magnon system

The quantum blockade effect is one of the important control methods for various quantum states. Recently, magnon has gradually become the focus of quantum device research due to its excellent properties such as stability, high spin density, and tunability. This study investigates the generation of conventional and unconventional single and double magnon blockades, as well as magnon-induced tunneling effects, in strongly nonlinearly coupled cavity–magnon systems. By adjusting the coupling strength and the driving field, we achieved single and double magnon blockades, along with magnon-induced tunneling effects. Interestingly, we found that the transition from a magnon blockade to magnon-induced tunneling can be controlled by modulating the driving field. To validate the feasibility of our model, we examined the impact of thermal noise at an experimental temperature of 20 mK. Our proposed scheme may offer a method to manipulate few-magnon states and holds potential applications in quantum communication and quantum information processing.

Distant entanglement generation and controllable information transfer via magnon–waveguide systems

The generation of entanglement and information distribution among macroscopic systems which are spatially separated are of paramount importance in the realm of quantum networks and quantum communication. In this paper, we propose a scheme that enables the preparation of long-distance entanglement between two magnons and controllable information transfer from a giant atom to either magnon, where the two magnons can be positioned symmetrically or asymmetrically in relation to a giant atom, and all of the magnons and the atom are coupled to a microwave cavity-array waveguide. By considering significant frequency detuning, we can virtually excite photons and establish an indirect interaction between the giant atom and the two magnons. Through the modulation of atom–waveguide coupling rates, we can not only evenly transfer atomic excitation to both magnons, thereby generating maximally entangled states, but also selectively transmit the atomic state to a single magnon. It is our hope that our proposed scheme will prove valuable in the field of quantum communications.

Quantum Control of a Single Magnon in a Macroscopic Spin System.

Nonclassical quantum states are the pivotal features of a quantum system that differs from its classical counterpart. However, the generation and coherent control of quantum states in a macroscopic spin system remain an outstanding challenge. Here we experimentally demonstrate the quantum control of a single magnon in a macroscopic spin system (i.e., 1mm-diameter yttrium-iron-garnet sphere) coupled to a superconducting qubit via a microwave cavity. By tuning the qubit frequency insitu via the Autler-Townes effect, we manipulate this single magnon to generate its nonclassical quantum states, including the single-magnon state and the superposition of single-magnon state and vacuum (zero magnon) state. Moreover, we confirm the deterministic generation of these nonclassical states by Wigner tomography. Our experiment offers the first reported deterministic generation of the nonclassical quantum states in a macroscopic spin system and paves a way to explore its promising applications in quantum engineering.

Single-magnon excited states of a Heisenberg spin chain using a quantum computer

Excited states of spin-chains play an important role in condensed matter physics. We present a method of calculating the single magnon excited states of the Heisenberg spin-chain that can be efficiently implemented on a quantum processor for small spin chains. Our method involves finding the stationary points of the energy vs wavenumber curve. We implement our method for 4-site and 8-site Heisenberg Hamiltonians using numerical techniques as well as using an IBM quantum processor. Finally, we give an insight into the circuit complexity and scaling of our proposed method.

Magnon–lattice dynamics in a Heisenberg–Morse model with spin–lattice interaction

We investigate the dynamics of a single magnon excitation in a quantum Heisenberg model under the effect of lattice vibrations. The Heisenberg spins are set on a nonlinear Morse chain, with the coupling depending on their distance. We solve the time evolution numerically and discuss the magnon velocity’s dependence on the spin–lattice coupling. Our results show that the lattice deformation embodies a finite fraction of the spin wave function in the robust spin–lattice coupling regime, generating a mobile magnon–lattice excitation. We also analyze the lattice deformation and magnon wave functions separately. Our results indicate both spatial profiles display solitonic features.

Tunable magnon antibunching via degenerate three-wave mixing in a hybrid ferromagnet–superconductor system

We propose a scheme for achieving magnon antibunching in a hybrid ferromagnet–superconductor system, where the magnons excited in two yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres couple the different levels of a cyclic three-level superconducting qubit by eliminating two perpendicular microwave cavity modes. With the aid of the three-level system, we find that the magnon antibunching can be achieved in a weak coupling regime via the degenerate three-wave mixing process. Moreover, it is found that the magnon antibunching inside a YIG2 sphere can be effectively regulated by manipulating the YIG1 sphere, for instance, the coupling strength of the YIG1 sphere and qubit and the driving strengths of the system. This work provides an alternative scheme for constructing the single magnon source based on the ferromagnet–superconductor technology and is conducive to studying the quantum properties of magnons.

Fractional Spin Excitations in the Infinite-Layer Cuprate CaCuO2

We use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) to investigate the magnetic dynamics of the infinite-layer cuprate CaCuO2. We find that close to the (1/2,0) point, the single magnon decays into a broad continuum of excitations accounting for about 80% of the total magnetic spectral weight. Polarization-resolved RIXS spectra reveal the overwhelming dominance of the spin-flip (ΔS=1) character of this continuum with respect to the ΔS=0 multimagnon contributions. Moreover, its incident-energy dependence is identical to that of the magnon, supporting a common physical origin. We propose that the continuum originates from the decay of the magnon into spinon pairs, and we relate it to the exceptionally high ring exchange Jc∼J1 of CaCuO2. In the infinite-layer cuprates, long-range and multisite hopping integrals are very important, and they amplify the 2D quantum magnetism effects in spite of the 3D antiferromagnetic Néel order.Received 12 October 2021Accepted 30 March 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021041Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasAntiferromagnetismExchange interactionMagnonsSpinonPhysical SystemsAntiferromagnetsCharge-transfer insulatorsHigh-temperature superconductorsTechniquesResonant inelastic x-ray scatteringCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Effective field theory of dark matter direct detection with collective excitations

We develop a framework for computing light dark matter direct detection rates through single phonon and magnon excitations via general effective operators. Our work generalizes previous calculations focused on spin-independent interactions involving the total nucleon and electron numbers $N$ (the usual route to excite phonons) and spin-dependent interactions involving the total electron spin $\mathbit{S}$ (the usual route to excite magnons), leading us to identify new responses involving the orbital angular momenta $\mathbit{L}$, as well as spin-orbit couplings $\mathbit{L}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\mathbit{S}$ in the target. All four types of responses can excite phonons, while couplings to electron's $\mathbit{S}$ and $\mathbit{L}$ can also excite magnons. We apply the effective field theory approach to a set of well-motivated relativistic benchmark models, including (pseudo) scalar mediated interactions, and models where dark matter interacts via a multipole moment, such as a dark electric dipole, magnetic dipole or anapole moment. We find that couplings to pointlike degrees of freedom $N$ and $\mathbit{S}$ often dominate dark matter detection rates, implying that exotic materials with orbital $\mathbit{L}$ order or large spin-orbit couplings $\mathbit{L}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\mathbit{S}$ are not necessary to have strong reach to a broad class of DM models. We highlight that phonon based crystal experiments in active R (such as SPICE) will probe light dark matter models well beyond those having a simple spin-independent interaction, including e.g., models with dipole and anapole interactions. Lastly, we make publicly available a code, $\mathsf{PhonoDark}$, which computes single phonon production rates in a wide variety of materials with the effective field theory framework.

Tunable magnon antibunching in a hybrid ferromagnet-superconductor system with two qubits

We explore a scheme to investigate the tunable magnon antibunching characteristics of the conventional magnon blockade (CMB) and the unconventional magnon blockade (UMB) in a hybrid ferromagnet-superconductor system. The magnon excited in the yttrium iron garnet is indirectly coupled to two qubits by eliminating two mutually perpendicular microwave cavity modes. In our paper, we relax the magnon-qubits detuning constraint. In two cases with and without magnon-qubits detuning, it is found that in the strong coupling regime CMB and UMB coexist in our system, and they can be regulated simultaneously by varying the magnon-qubits coupling strength ratio and the qubits detuning ratio. In the weak coupling regime, there exists only the UMB in the system. Without magnon-qubits detuning, the UMB shows a nonmonotonic dependence on the magnon-qubits coupling strength ratio. With magnon-qubits detuning, for the UMB, the magnon bunching effect and antibunching effect can be converted mutually by adjusting the magnon-qubits coupling strength ratio and the qubits detuning ratio. Moreover, changing the magnon-qubits coupling strength ratio and the qubits detuning ratio has a significant impact on the antibunching effect against the thermal magnon excitation. Our research results provide a theoretical scheme for the manipulation of magnon antibunching characteristics, and have important practical significance for the construction of a single magnon source.

Magnetic excitations of the field-induced states in BaCo2(AsO4)2 probed by time-domain terahertz spectroscopy

Searching for Kitaev quantum spin liquid (QSL) is a fascinating and challenging problem. Much effort has been devoted to honeycomb lattice candidates with strong spin-orbit coupling in 5d-electron iridates and 4delectron RuCl3. Recently, theoretical studies suggested that the 3d7 Co-based honeycomb materials with high spin state S=3/2 and effective orbital angular momentum L=1 could also be promising candidates of Kitaev QSL. One of the candidates, BaCo2(AsO4)2, was revisited recently. The long range magnetic order in BaCo2(AsO4)2 can be suppressed by very weak in-plane magnetic field, suggesting its proximity to Kitaev QSL. Here we perform time domain terahertz spectroscopy measurement to study the magnetic excitations on BaCo2(AsO4)2. We observe different magnon excitations upon increasing external magnetic field. In particular, the system is easily driven to a field-polarized paramagnetic phase, after the long range magnetic order is suppressed by a weak field Hc 2. The spectra beyond Hc2 are dominated by single magnon and two magnon excitations without showing signature of QSL. We discuss the similarity and difference of the excitation spectra between BaCo2(AsO4)2 and the widely studied Kitaev QSL candidate RuCl3.

Dynamical spin susceptibility in La2CuO4 studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) is a powerful probe of elementary excitations in solids. It is now widely applied to study magnetic excitations. However, its complex cross section means that RIXS has been more difficult to interpret than inelastic neutron scattering (INS). Here we report $\ensuremath{\sim}37$ meV resolution RIXS measurements of the magnetic excitations in ${\mathrm{La}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuO}}_{4}$, the antiferromagnetic parent of one system of high-temperature superconductors. At high energies ($\ensuremath{\sim}2$ eV), the RIXS spectra show angular-dependent $dd$ orbital excitations in agreement with previous RIXS studies but show new structure. They are interpreted with single-site multiplet calculations. At low energies ($\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.3$ eV), we model the wave-vector-dependent single magnon RIXS intensity as the product of the calculated single-ion spin-flip RIXS cross section and the dynamical structure factor $S(\mathbf{Q},\ensuremath{\omega})$ of the spin-wave excitations. When $S(\mathbf{Q},\ensuremath{\omega})$ is extracted from our data, the wave-vector-dependence of the single-magnon pole intensity shows a similar variation to that observed by INS. Our results confirm that suitably corrected RIXS data can yield the genuine wave-vector and energy dependence of $S(\mathbf{Q},\ensuremath{\omega})$ for a cuprate antiferromagnet. In addition to spin waves, our data show structured multimagnon excitations with dispersing peaks in the intensity at energies higher than the single-magnon excitations.

Phase-controlled multimagnon blockade and magnon-induced tunneling in a hybrid superconducting system

We study the multimagnon blockade and magnon-induced tunneling in the hybrid ferromagnet-superconductor system, where a magnon mode representing the collective motion of spins in the yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere is coupled with a three-level $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$-type fluxonium qubit via the virtual-photon excitation from the microwave cavity. By appropriately choosing the parameters, the single magnon blockade, multimagnon blockade including two- and three-magnon blockades, and magnon-induced tunneling could be achieved. Fortunately, the switch from magnon blockade to magnon-induced tunneling could be obtained via controlling the overall phase of the loop transition determined by the driving fields. Furthermore, the single-magnon blockade could be transformed into a multimagnon blockade via the phase modulation. The scheme we present may provide an alternative method to manipulate the few-magnon states and have potential applications in quantum communication and quantum information processing.

The atomic ordering dependence of magnetic and magneto-transport properties for polycrystalline Fe3Si films

This work intended to give a comprehensive overview of the atomic ordering dependence of magnetic and magneto-transport properties for polycrystalline Fe3Si films on Si(111) substrates by inserting the MgO buffer layer between them. X-ray diffraction results display that the single phase polycrystalline Fe3Si film fulfilling fundamental reflections, B2-Fe3Si film and D03-Fe3Si film are acquired. Scanning electron microscopy images present the distribution of the particles dispersed and embedded in the films, resulting in rough surface. The Ms value increases and Hc value decreases with the improvement of structural and chemical order. The highly ordered D03-Fe3Si film has the highest Ms value of 610~657 emu cm−3, and the lowest Hc value of 81~93 Oe. Fe3Si films characterize metallic behavior and the resistivity declines with the improvement of atomic ordering. The phonon contribution governs the resistivity in the high temperature range and the electron–electron scattering and anomalous single magnon scattering mechanisms are available at the low temperature region of ~30 K~100 K and below ~30 K, respectively. The analysis of anomalous Hall effect demonstrates that Berry curvature dominates the anomalous Hall effect via a proper scaling law. The enhancement of intrinsic anomalous Hall effect contribution is due to the impact of the improvement of structural and chemical order on the band structure/Berry curvature modifications, accordingly affecting the intensity of spin–orbit coupling, whereas the extrinsic contributions behave in opposite manner.

Conventional and unconventional magnon blockades in a qubit-magnon hybrid quantum system

We investigate magnon statistics in a qubit-magnon hybrid quantum system in which an effective appreciable qubit-magnon coupling can be realized by exchanging virtual cavity photons. A conventional magnon blockade and two types of unconventional magnon blockades are proposed, respectively, based on three different physical mechanisms. We verify theoretically that a magnon blockade can occur in strong, weak, and moderate qubit-magnon coupling regimes. It is interesting that an asymmetry structure for magnon anti-bunching can be observed in the case of the moderate qubit-magnon coupling strength, especially where the quantum interference can significantly relax the requirement of the larger coupling strength between the qubit and magnon mode. All of the approximate analytical results for strong magnon anti-bunching are in good agreement with those obtained by numerical simulations. Our results provide a promising pathway for coherent manipulation in single magnon level, which has potential applications for quantum information processing and preparation of single magnon sources.

Quantum sensing of a coherent single spin excitation in a nuclear ensemble

Accessing an ensemble of coherently interacting objects at the level of single quanta via a proxy qubit is transformative in the investigations of emergent quantum phenomena. An isolated nuclear spin ensemble is a remarkable platform owing to its coherence, but sensing its excitations with single spin precision has remained elusive. Here we achieve quantum sensing of a single nuclear-spin excitation (a nuclear magnon) in a dense ensemble of approximately 80,000 nuclei. A Ramsey measurement on the electron proxy qubit enables us to sense the hyperfine shift induced by a single nuclear magnon. We resolve multiple magnon modes distinguished by atomic species and spin polarity via the spectral dependence of this hyperfine shift. Finally, we observe the time-dependent shift induced by collective Rabi oscillations, revealing the competition between the buildup of quantum correlations and decoherence in the ensemble. These techniques could be extended to probe the engineered quantum states of the ensemble such as long-lived memory states. A single excitation in a semiconductor nuclear spin ensemble is detected with parts-per-million accuracy using the coupling between the ensemble and an electron-spin quantum dot.

Magnetic Excitations of Sr3Ir2O7 Observed by Inelastic Neutron Scattering Technique

In this short note, we report on the first inelastic neutron scattering (INS) study on high-energy magnetic excitations in Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$. We observed excitations between $\sim$80 meV and $\sim$180 meV. The peak position of the excitations is consistent with the dispersion of a single magnon determined by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) measurement. Thus, our results demonstrate that INS and RIXS observe identical excitations in iridate oxides, as in La$_2$CuO$_4$.