Optical sensing of magnons via the magnetoelastic displacement

TL;DR

This paper proposes an optomechanical method to measure magnon populations in ferromagnets using magnetoelastic coupling and optical phase detection, achieving high sensitivity even at room temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a novel magnetometer based on magnetoelasticity and optical measurement, enabling non-invasive magnon detection with high precision.

Findings

Linear phase response to magnon population

High signal-to-noise ratio at room temperature

Enhanced resolution with squeezed light at cryogenic temperatures

Abstract

We show how to measure a steady-state magnon population in a magnetostatic mode of a ferromagnet or ferrimagnet, such as yttrium iron garnet. We adopt an optomechanical approach and utilize the magnetoelasticity of the ferromagnet. The magnetostrictive force dispersively couples magnons to the deformation displacement of the ferromagnet, which is proportional to the magnon population. By further coupling the mechanical displacement to an optical cavity that is resonantly driven by a weak laser, the magnetostrictively induced displacement can be sensed by measuring the phase quadrature of the optical field. The phase shows an excellent linear dependence on the magnon population for a not very large population, and can thus be used as a `magnometer' to measure the magnon population. We further study the effect of thermal noises, and find a high signal-to-noise ratio even at room temperature. At cryogenic temperatures, the resolution of magnon excitation numbers is essentially limited by the vacuum fluctuations of the phase, which can be significantly improved by using a squeezed light.