Role of dimensionality in spontaneous magnon decay: easy-plane ferromagnet

We calculate magnon lifetime in an easy-plane ferromagnet on a tetragonal lattice in transverse magnetic field. At zero temperature magnons are unstable with respect to spontaneous decay into two other magnons. Varying ratio of intrachain to interchain exchanges in this model we consider the effect of dimensionality on spontaneous magnon decay. The strongest magnon damping is found in the quasi-one-dimensional case for momenta near the Brillouin zone boundary. The sign of a weak interchain coupling has a little effect on the magnon decay rate. The obtained theoretical results suggest possibility of experimental observation of spontaneous magnon decay in a quasi-one-dimensional ferromagnet CsNiF$_3$. We also find an interesting enhancement of the magnon decay rate for a three-dimensional ferromagnet. The effect is present only for the nearest-neighbor model and is related to effective dimensionality reduction in the two-magnon continuum.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Spontaneous magnon decays in planar ferromagnet

We predict that spin-waves in an easy-plane ferromagnet have a finite lifetime at zero temperature due to spontaneous decays. In zero field the damping is determined by three-magnon decay processes, whereas decays in the two-particle channel dominate in a transverse magnetic field. Explicit calculations of the magnon damping are performed in the framework of the spin-wave theory for the $XXZ$ square-lattice ferromagnet with an anisotropy parameter $\lambda<1$. In zero magnetic field the decays occur for $\lambda^*<\lambda<1$ with $\lambda^*\approx 1/7$. We also discuss possibility of experimental observation of the predicted effect in a number of ferromagnetic insulators.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letter

The enhancement of ferromagnetism in uniaxially stressed diluted magnetic semiconductors

We predict a new mechanism of enhancement of ferromagnetic phase transition temperature $T_c$ in uniaxially stressed diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) of p-type. Our prediction is based on comparative studies of both Heisenberg (inherent to undistorted DMS with cubic lattice) and Ising (which can be applied to strongly enough stressed DMS) models in a random field approximation permitting to take into account the spatial inhomogeneity of spin-spin interaction. Our calculations of phase diagrams show that area of parameters for existence of DMS-ferromagnetism in Ising model is much larger than that in Heisenberg model.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.