Direct observation of two-dimensional magnons in atomically thin CrI3
Abstract
Magnons are collective spin excitations in crystals with long-range magnetic order. The emergent van der Waals magnets provide a highly tunable platform to explore magnetic excitations in the two-dimensional limit with intriguing properties, manifesting from their honeycomb lattice structure and switchable magnetic configurations. Here, we report the direct observation of two-dimensional magnons through magneto-Raman spectroscopy with optical selection rules determined by the interplay between crystal symmetry, layer number and magnetic states in atomically thin CrI3. In monolayers, we observe an acoustic magnon mode at ~0.3 meV. It has strict cross-circularly polarized selection rules locked to the magnetization direction that originates from the conservation of angular momentum of photons and magnons dictated by three-fold rotational symmetry. Additionally, we reveal optical magnon modes at ~17 meV. This mode is Raman silent in monolayers, but optically active in bilayers and bulk due to a relaxation of the parity criterion resulting from the layer index. In the layered antiferromagnetic states, we directly resolve two degenerate optical magnon modes with opposite angular momentum and conjugate optical selection rules. From these measurements, we quantitatively extract the spin-wave gap, magnetic anisotropy and intralayer and interlayer exchange constants, and establish two-dimensional magnets as a new platform for exploringmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- National Inst. for Materials Science, Tsukuba (Japan)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1760125
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nature Physics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 17; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1745-2473
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Cenker, John, Huang, Bevin, Suri, Nishchay, Thijssen, Pearl, Miller, Aaron, Song, Tiancheng, Taniguchi, Takashi, Watanabe, Kenji, McGuire, Michael A., Xiao, Di, and Xu, Xiaodong. Direct observation of two-dimensional magnons in atomically thin CrI3. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41567-020-0999-1.
Cenker, John, Huang, Bevin, Suri, Nishchay, Thijssen, Pearl, Miller, Aaron, Song, Tiancheng, Taniguchi, Takashi, Watanabe, Kenji, McGuire, Michael A., Xiao, Di, & Xu, Xiaodong. Direct observation of two-dimensional magnons in atomically thin CrI3. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0999-1
Cenker, John, Huang, Bevin, Suri, Nishchay, Thijssen, Pearl, Miller, Aaron, Song, Tiancheng, Taniguchi, Takashi, Watanabe, Kenji, McGuire, Michael A., Xiao, Di, and Xu, Xiaodong. Mon .
"Direct observation of two-dimensional magnons in atomically thin CrI3". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0999-1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1760125.
@article{osti_1760125,
title = {Direct observation of two-dimensional magnons in atomically thin CrI3},
author = {Cenker, John and Huang, Bevin and Suri, Nishchay and Thijssen, Pearl and Miller, Aaron and Song, Tiancheng and Taniguchi, Takashi and Watanabe, Kenji and McGuire, Michael A. and Xiao, Di and Xu, Xiaodong},
abstractNote = {Magnons are collective spin excitations in crystals with long-range magnetic order. The emergent van der Waals magnets provide a highly tunable platform to explore magnetic excitations in the two-dimensional limit with intriguing properties, manifesting from their honeycomb lattice structure and switchable magnetic configurations. Here, we report the direct observation of two-dimensional magnons through magneto-Raman spectroscopy with optical selection rules determined by the interplay between crystal symmetry, layer number and magnetic states in atomically thin CrI3. In monolayers, we observe an acoustic magnon mode at ~0.3 meV. It has strict cross-circularly polarized selection rules locked to the magnetization direction that originates from the conservation of angular momentum of photons and magnons dictated by three-fold rotational symmetry. Additionally, we reveal optical magnon modes at ~17 meV. This mode is Raman silent in monolayers, but optically active in bilayers and bulk due to a relaxation of the parity criterion resulting from the layer index. In the layered antiferromagnetic states, we directly resolve two degenerate optical magnon modes with opposite angular momentum and conjugate optical selection rules. From these measurements, we quantitatively extract the spin-wave gap, magnetic anisotropy and intralayer and interlayer exchange constants, and establish two-dimensional magnets as a new platform for exploring magnon physics.},
doi = {10.1038/s41567-020-0999-1},
journal = {Nature Physics},
number = 1,
volume = 17,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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