Control of spin-wave polarity and velocity using a ferrimagnetic domain wall

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how ferrimagnetic domain walls influence spin wave behavior, revealing potential for spin-wave filtering and acceleration, which could enhance spintronics device functionalities.

Contribution

It uncovers unique spin wave scattering and velocity control mechanisms in ferrimagnetic domain walls, distinct from ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic systems.

Findings

Spin wave scattering depends on polarization in narrow FiM DWs.

Sharp FiM DWs can change spin wave velocity, acting as accelerators or decelerators.

FiM spin textures offer novel spin-wave functionalities not present in traditional magnets.

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the scattering of spin waves by a domain wall (DW) in a ferrimagnetic (FiM) spin chain in which two sublattices carry spins of unequal magnitudes. We find that a narrow, but atomically smooth FiM DW exhibits a different behavior in comparison with similarly smooth ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic DWs due to the inequivalence of the two sublattices. Specifically, for sufficiently weak anisotropy, the smaller spin at the center of the DW is found to become precisely normal to the easy-axis, selecting an arbitrary direction in the $xy$-plane and thereby breaking the U(1) spin-rotational symmetry spontaneously. This particular form of a FiM DW does not occur in antiferromagnetic systems and is shown to lead to a strong dependence of spin wave scattering pattern on the state of polarization of the spin wave, which can be either right-handed or left-handed, suggesting the utilization of such a narrow DW as a spin-wave filter. Moreover, we find that in the case of an atomically sharp DW, where all the spins point either up or down due to strong easy-axis anisotropy and therefore the polarization of the spin wave is conserved upon transmission, the wave vector of the spin wave changes after passing through the DW leading to a change in the group velocity of the spin wave. This change of the wave vector indicates the acceleration or deceleration of the spin waves and thus a sharp FiM DW could serve as a spin wave accelerator or decelerator in spintronics devices, offering a functionality absent in a ferromagnetic and an antiferromagnetic counterpart. Our results indicate that FiM spin textures can interact with spin waves distinctly from ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic counterparts, suggesting that they may offer spin-wave functionalities that are absent in more conventional magnets.