Chemical potential of quasi-equilibrium magnon gas driven by pure spin current

We show experimentally that the spin current generated by the spin Hall effect drives the magnon gas in a ferromagnet into a quasi-equilibrium state that can be described by the Bose-Einstein statistics. The magnon population function is characterized either by an increased effective chemical potential or by a reduced effective temperature, depending on the spin current polarization. In the former case, the chemical potential can closely approach, at large driving currents, the lowest-energy magnon state, indicating the possibility of spin current-driven Bose-Einstein condensation

Sub-micrometer near-field focusing of spin waves in ultrathin YIG films

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Direct evidence of spatial stability of Bose-Einstein condensate of magnons

Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons is one of few macroscopic quantum phenomena observed at room temperature. Since its discovery, it became an object of intense research, which led to the observation of many exciting phenomena such as quantized vortices, second sound, and Bogolyubov waves. However, it remained unclear what physical mechanisms can be responsible for the spatial stability of the magnon condensate. Indeed, since magnons are believed to exhibit attractive interaction, it is generally expected that the condensate is unstable with respect to the real-space collapse, contrarily to experimental findings. Here, we provide direct experimental evidence that magnons in a condensate exhibit repulsive interaction resulting in the condensate stabilization and propose a mechanism, which is responsible for this interaction. Our experimental conclusions are additionally supported by the theoretical model based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our findings solve a longstanding problem, providing a new insight into the physics of magnon Bose-Einstein condensates

True amplification of spin waves in magnonic nano-waveguides

Abstract Magnonic nano-devices exploit magnons - quanta of spin waves - to transmit and process information within a single integrated platform that has the potential to outperform traditional semiconductor-based electronics. The main missing cornerstone of this information nanotechnology is an efficient scheme for the amplification of propagating spin waves. The recent discovery of spin-orbit torque provided an elegant mechanism for propagation losses compensation. While partial compensation of the spin-wave losses has been achieved, true amplification – the exponential increase in the spin-wave intensity during propagation – has so far remained elusive. Here we evidence the operating conditions to achieve unambiguous amplification using clocked nanoseconds-long spin-orbit torque pulses in magnonic nano-waveguides, where the effective magnetization has been engineered to be close to zero to suppress the detrimental magnon scattering. We achieve an exponential increase in the intensity of propagating spin waves up to 500% at a propagation distance of several micrometers

Evidence for spin current driven Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons

International audienceThe quanta of magnetic excitations -magnons -are known for their unique ability to undergo Bose-Einstein condensation at room temperature. This fascinating phenomenon reveals itself as a spontaneous formation of a macroscopic coherent state under the influence of incoherent stimuli. Spin currents have been predicted to offer electronic control of magnon Bose-Einstein condensates, but this phenomenon has not been experimentally evidenced up to now. Here we experimentally show that current-driven Bose-Einstein condensation can be achieved in nanometer-thick films of magnetic insulators with tailored dynamic magnetic nonlinearities and minimized magnon-magnon interactions. We demonstrate that, above a certain threshold, magnons injected by the spin current overpopulate the lowest-energy level forming a highly coherent spatially extended state. By accessing magnons with essentially different energies, we quantify the chemical potential of the driven magnon gas and show that, at the critical current, it reaches the energy of the lowest magnon level. Our results pave the way for implementation of integrated microscopic quantum magnonic and spintronic devices