Effect of inhomogeneous Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on antiferromagnetic spin-wave propagation

Abstract

We investigate the effect of inhomogeneous Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) on antiferromagnetic spin-wave propagation theoretically and numerically. We find that antiferromagnetic spin waves can be amplified at a boundary where the DMI varies. The inhomogeneous DMI also provides a way to construct a magnonic crystal with forbidden and allowed antiferromagnetic spin-wave bands in terahertz frequency ranges. In contrast to ferromagnetic spin waves, antiferromagnetic spin waves experience a polarization-dependent phase shift when passing through the inhomogeneous DMI, offering a magnonic crystal that also serves as a spin-wave polarizer.

21 pages, 4 figures