Observation of magnon polarization

南部 雄亮*; Barker, J.*; 沖野 夕貴*; 吉川 貴史*; 塩見 雄毅*; Enderle, M.*; Weber, T.*; Winn, B.*; Graves-Brook, M.*; Tranquada, J. M.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 125(2), p.027201_1 - 027201_6, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.027201

We measure the mode-resolved direction of the precessional motion of the magnetic order, i.e., magnon polarization, via the chiral term of inelastic polarized neutron scattering spectra. The magnon polarization is a unique and unambiguous signature of magnets and is important in spintronics, affecting thermodynamic properties such as the magnitude and sign of the spin Seebeck effect. However, it has never been directly measured in any material until this work. The observation of both signs of magnon polarization in YFeO also gives direct proof of its ferrimagnetic nature. The experiments agree very well with atomistic simulations of the scattering cross section.