Switching magnon chirality in artificial ferrimagnet

Magnons in antiferromagnets hold potential for chirality-based spintronics, but a practical platform remains absent. Here, the authors demonstrate possible magnon chirality switching, reading and modulation in an artificial ferrimagnet Py/Gd/Py/Gd/Py/Pt multilayer, manifesting the chirality as an independent degree of freedom. Chirality, an intrinsic degree of freedom, has been barely exploited as the information carriers in data transmission, processing, computing, etc. Recently the magnons in antiferromagnets were proposed to carry both right-handed and left-handed chiralities, shedding a light on chirality-based spintronics in which chirality-based computing architectures and chiral magnonic devices may become feasible. However, the practical platform for chirality-based spintronics remains absent yet. Here we report an artificial ferrimagnetic Py/Gd/Py/Gd/Py/Pt multilayer by which the switching, reading, and modulation of magnon chirality are demonstrated. In particular, the coexisting resonance modes of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic characteristics permit the high adjustability and easy control of magnon chirality. As a main result, we unambiguously demonstrated that Py precessions with opposite chiralities pump spin currents of opposite spin polarizations into the Pt layer. Our result manifests the chirality as an independent degree of freedom and illustrates a practical magnonic platform for exploiting chirality, paving the way for chirality-based spintronics.

Automated summary

The authors demonstrate possible magnon chirality switching, reading, and modulation in an artificial ferrimagnet multilayer, showing chirality as an independent degree of freedom. This result provides a practical platform for developing chirality-based spintronics.