Magnon thermal conductivity in multiferroics with spin cycloids

Journal Article · Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Physical review B (PRB)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/tqqw-qh7l· OSTI ID:2587916

Park, Hyeon Woo; Zhang, Shu; Meisenheimer, Peter; Ramesh, Maya; Husain, Sajid; Harris, Isaac; Íñiguez-González, Jorge; Yao, Zhi; Ramesh, Ramamoorthy; Kim, Kwon

Multiferroic materials, characterized by the occurrence of two or more ferroic properties, hold potential in future technological applications and also exhibit intriguing phenomena caused by the interplay of multiple orders. One such example is the formation of spin-cycloid structures within multiferroic materials, which we investigate in this work by focusing on their magnon excitations and transport based on a general multiferroic Hamiltonian with an antiferromagnetic order. More specifically, we identify the ground state and explore the dynamics of magnon modes, revealing distinct in-plane and out-of-plane modes with anisotropic dispersion relations. The magnon modes include a massless excitation, known as the Goldstone boson, originating from the spontaneous breaking of the translational symmetry by the formation of the cycloid structures. By employing the Boltzmann transport formalism, the magnonic thermal conductivity with spin cycloids and low-temperature anisotropic behaviors is discussed. This work provides pathways to envision the spin-textured multiferroics, which may serve as a fertile ground to look for novel thermal and spin transport with the rich interplay of quasiparticles such as magnons and phonons.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2587916
• Journal Information: Physical review B (PRB), Journal Name: Physical review B (PRB) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 112
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English