Spin Waves bridging Spintronics and Photonics

本项目的目标是结合磁磁学、自旋电子学和光子学三个新近出现的研究方向，探索自旋波、自旋极化电子和光子之间的基本联系。这项研究是由对信息处理的新概念、新技术和新材料的需求推动的，因为一方面，由于废热的产生，电子器件正在达到其速度的物理极限，另一方面，光子学在小长度尺度上缺乏快速的电子控制。自旋波，作为频率在千兆赫到太赫兹范围内的铁磁体的基本动态激发，提供了独特的机会来融合自旋电子学和光子学的最佳方面，为信息处理开辟了新的途径。在这个项目的范围内，有三个目标是关注的焦点：第一个目标是分析磁性纳米结构中的自旋波输运和操纵。这包括新材料和几何形状的表征，以及利用磁光克尔效应和布里渊光散射显微镜研究自旋波和畴壁之间的相互作用。第二个目标集中在自旋霍尔效应产生的自旋波和自旋流之间的耦合。我们将分析自旋传递扭矩和自旋泵对自旋波的激发、放大和检测。在我们的第三个目标中，通过自旋波在纳米尺度上操纵光，我们使用了自旋波和表面等离子体之间的强磁光耦合。这使我们能够在由自旋波定义的时间尺度上控制纳米结构中表面等离子体的传播。磁磁学研究了自旋电子学与光子学之间的耦合机制，一方面研究了自旋波与电子之间的耦合机制，另一方面研究了自旋波与光子之间的耦合机制。

The goal of this project is to explore fundamental connections between spin waves, spin polarized electrons and photons, combining the three recently emerged research directions of magnonics, spintronics and photonics. This research is driven by the demand for new concepts, technologies and materials for information processing since, on one side, electronics is reaching its physical limit of speed due to waste heat generation and, on the other side, photonics lacks fast, electronic control on small length scales. Spin waves, being the fundamental dynamic excitations of ferromagnets with frequencies in the gigahertz to terahertz regime, offer the unique opportunity to merge the best aspects of spintronics and photonics opening new pathways for information processing. Within the scope of this project, three objectives are in the focus of interest: The first objective is to analyze spin-wave transport and manipulation in magnetic nanostructures. This includes the characterization of novel materials and geometries as well as the investigation of the interactions between spin waves and domain walls utilizing the magneto-optical Kerr effect and Brillouin light scattering microscopy. The second objective focuses on the coupling between spin waves and spin currents that are created by the spin Hall-effect. We will analyze the excitation, amplification and detection of spin waves by spin transfer torque and spin pumping. Within our third objective, the manipulation of light by spin waves on the nanometer scale, we employ the strong magneto-optical coupling between spin waves and surface plasmons. This allows us to control the propagation of surface plasmons in nanostructures on the time scale defined by spin waves. Exploring mechanisms of coupling between spin waves and electrons on one side and spin waves and photons on the other, magnonics can close the gap between spintronics and photonics that still operate on different time and length scales.