Quantitative comparison of magnon transport experiments in three-terminal YIG/Pt nanostructures acquired via dc and ac detection techniques

TL;DR

This paper compares dc and ac electrical measurement techniques for magnon transport in YIG/Pt nanostructures, revealing their effectiveness and nonlinear effects at higher currents.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative comparison of dc and ac detection methods for magnon transport, highlighting their similarities and differences in nonlinear regimes.

Findings

Both methods effectively distinguish between electrically and thermally injected magnons.

The two measurement schemes yield identical results at low modulator currents.

Differences emerge at higher currents due to nonlinear effects on magnon conductance.

Abstract

All-electrical generation and detection of pure spin currents is a promising way towards controlling the diffusive magnon transport in magnetically ordered insulators. We quantitatively compare two measurement schemes, which allow to measure the magnon spin transport in a three-terminal device based on a yttrium iron garnet thin film. We demonstrate that the dc charge current method based on the current reversal technique and the ac charge current method utilizing first and second harmonic lock-in detection can both efficiently distinguish between electrically and thermally injected magnons. In addition, both measurement schemes allow to investigate the modulation of magnon transport induced by an additional dc charge current applied to the center modulator strip. However, while at low modulator charge current both schemes yield identical results, we find clear differences above a certain threshold current. This difference originates from nonlinear effects of the modulator current on the magnon conductance.