MAGNONICS - Magnonics: Mastering magnons in magnetic meta-materials

Abstract:

The opportunity to modify spectrum of excitations in materials with periodically modulated properties has stimulated striving research activity in the area of artificial periodic structures with aim to design novel materials with new revolutionary functionalities - so called meta-materials. Photonic, plasmonic, and phononic crystals and semiconductor superlattices are typical examples of exploitation of this concept for controlling light, acoustic wave and electron propagation and scattering in electronic and opto-electronic devices. Magnetic materials with periodically modulated properties are also known to possess properties that cannot be reduced to those of constituent layers.

The best example here is the phenomenon of giant magnetoresistance (GMR), discovery of which was marked by the Nobel Prize Award last year. Importantly, the spectrum of magnons in periodic magnetic materials has band structure. By analogy to other band-gap materials, periodic magnetic structures used as a medium for controlled propagation of magnons are called magnonic crystals, while the corresponding field of research is called magnonics. The objective of the proposed project is to bring together several European research teams with a broad of fabrication and characterization expertise in order to realize practically this new class of meta-materials magnonic crystals. We will create 1D, 2D, and 3D magnonic crystals with dynamical magnetic properties tailored at the nano-scale.

The created magnonic crystals will be then used to replace continuous magnetic materials within various devices ranging from electro-motors and actuators to nano-scale magnonic logic elements, in which magnons will be used as signal carriers. The experimental data obtained in the course of the project will be used to test existing and to create new theories of high-frequency magneto-dynamics in magnetic nano-structures.