Magnon-photon coupling in antiferromagnets

H. Y. Yuan, X. R. Wang

Published 2017-02-26Version 1

Magnon-photon coupling in antiferromagnets has many attractive features that do not exist in ferro- or ferrimagnets. We show quantum-mechanically that, in the absence of an external field, one of the two degenerated spin wave bands couples with photons while the other does not. The photon mode anticrosses with the coupled spin waves when their frequencies are close to each other. Similar to its ferromagnetic counterpart, the magnon-photon coupling strength is proportional to the square root of number of spins $\sqrt{N}$ in antiferromagnets. An external field removes the spin wave degeneracy and both spin wave bands couple to the photons, resulting in two anticrossings between the magnons and photons. Two transmission peaks were observed near the anticrossing frequency. The maximum damping that allows clear discrimination of the two transmission peaks is proportional to $\sqrt{N}$ and it's well below the damping of antiferromagnetic insulators. Therefore the strong magnon-photon coupling can be realized in antiferromagnets and the coherent information transfer between the photons and magnons is possible.