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Oxford University Press eBooks

Spin superfluidity and magnon Bose–Einstein condensation

Yu. M. Bunkov, Григорий Ефимович Воловик

Published Feb 28, 2013• 26 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter discusses different phases of magnon superfluidity, including those in a magnetic trap; and signatures of magnon superfluidity: (i) spin supercurrent, which transports the magnetization for a macroscopic distance (up to 1 cm); (ii) spin current Josephson effect, which shows the interference between two condensates; (iii) spin current vortex — a topological defect which is an analog of a quantized vortex in superfluids, of an Abrikosov vortex in superconductors, and cosmic strings in relativistic theories; and (iv) Goldstone modes related to broken U(1) symmetry — phonons in the spin-superfluid magnon gas. The chapter also considers the topic of spin supercurrent in general, including spin-Hall and intrinsic quantum spin-Hall effects.

DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199585915.003.0004

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This chapter discusses different phases of magnon superfluidity, including those in a magnetic trap; and signatures of magnon superfluidity: (i) spin supercurrent, which transports the magnetization for a macroscopic distance (up to 1 cm); (ii) spin current Josephson effect, which shows the interference between two condensates; (iii) spin current vortex — a topological defect which is an analog of a quantized vortex in superfluids, of an Abrikosov vortex in superconductors, and cosmic strings in relativistic theories; and (iv) Goldstone modes related to broken U(1) symmetry — phonons in the spin-superfluid magnon gas. The chapter also considers the topic of spin supercurrent in general, including spin-Hall and intrinsic quantum spin-Hall effects.
The spin superfluidity -- superfluidity in the magnetic subsystem of a condensed matter - is manifested as the spontaneous phase-coherent precession of spins first discovered in 1984 in 3He-B. This superfluid current of spins - spin supercurrent - is one more representative of superfluid currents known or discussed in other systems, such as the superfluid current of mass and atoms in superfluid 4He; superfluid current of electric charge in superconductors; superfluid current of hypercharge in Standard Model of particle physics; superfluid baryonic current and current of chiral charge in quark matter; etc. Spin superfluidity can be described in terms of the Bose condensation of spin waves - magnons. We discuss different phases of magnon superfluidity, including those in magnetic trap; and signatures of magnons superfluidity: (i) spin supercurrent, which transports the magnetization on a macroscopic distance more than 1 cm long; (ii) spin current Josephson effect which shows interference between two condensates; (iii) spin current vortex - a topological defect which is an analog of a quantized vortex in superfluids, of an Abrikosov vortex in superconductors, and cosmic strings in relativistic theories; (iv) Goldstone modes related to the broken U(1) symmetry - phonons in the spin-superfluid magnon gas; etc. We also touch the topic of spin supercurrent in general including spin Hall and intrinsic quantum spin Hall effects.
The spin superfluidity -- superfluidity in the magnetic subsystem of a condensed matter -- is manifested as the spontaneous phase-coherent precession of spins first discovered in 1984 in ^3He-B. This superfluid current of spins -- spin supercurrent -- is one more representative of superfluid currents known or discussed in other systems, such as the superfluid current of mass and atoms in superfluid ^4He; superfluid current of electric charge in superconductors; superfluid current of hypercharge in Standard Model of particle physics; superfluid baryonic current and current of chiral charge in quark matter; etc. Spin superfluidity can be described in terms of the Bose condensation of spin waves -- magnons. We discuss different states of magnon superfluidity with different types of spin-orbit coupling: in bulk ^3He-B; magnetically traped "Q-balls" at very low temperatures; in ^3He-A and ^3He-B immerged in deformed aerogel; etc. Some effects in normal ^3He can also be treated as a magnetic BEC of fermi liquid. A very similar phenomena can be observed also in a magnetic systems with dinamical frequensy shift, like MnC03. We will discuss the main experimental signatures of magnons superfluidity: (i) spin supercurrent, which transports the magnetization on a macroscopic distance more than 1 cm long; (ii) spin current Josephson effect which shows interference between two condensates; (iii) spin current vortex -- a topological defect which is an analog of a quantized vortex in superfluids, of an Abrikosov vortex in superconductors, and cosmic strings in relativistic theories; (iv) Goldstone modes related to the broken U(1) symmetry -- phonons in the spin-superfluid magnon gas; etc. For recent review see Yu. M. Bunkov and G. E. Volovik J. Phys. Cond. Matter. 22, 164210 (2010)
Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is a quantum phenomenon of formation of a collective quantum state in which a macroscopic number of particles occupy the lowest energy state and thus is governed by a single wavefunction. Here we highlight the BEC in a magnetic subsystem--the BEC of magnons, elementary magnetic excitations. The magnon BEC is manifested as the spontaneously emerging state of the precessing spins, in which all spins precess with the same frequency and phase even in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The coherent spin precession was observed first in superfluid (3)He-B and this domain was called the homogeneously precessing domain (HPD). The main feature of the HPD is the induction decay signal, which ranges over many orders of magnitude longer than is prescribed by the inhomogeneity of magnetic field. This means that spins precess not with a local Larmor frequency, but coherently with a common frequency and phase. This BEC can also be created and stabilized by continuous NMR pumping. In this case the NMR frequency plays the role of a magnon chemical potential, which determines the density of the magnon condensate. The interference between two condensates has also been demonstrated. It was shown that HPD exhibits all the properties of spin superfluidity. The main property is the existence of a spin supercurrent. This spin supercurrent flows separately from the mass current. Transfer of magnetization by the spin supercurrent by a distance of more than 1 cm has been observed. Also related phenomena have been observed: the spin current Josephson effect; the phase-slip processes at the critical current; and the spin current vortex--a topological defect which is the analog of a quantized vortex in superfluids and of an Abrikosov vortex in superconductors; and so on. It is important to mention that the spin supercurrent is a magnetic phenomenon, which is not directly related to the mass superfluidity of (3)He: it is the consequence of a specific antiferromagnetic ordering in superfluid (3)He. Several different states of coherent precession have been observed in (3)He-B: the homogeneously precessing domain (HPD); a persistent signal formed by Q-balls at very low temperatures; coherent precession with fractional magnetization; and two new modes of coherent precession in compressed aerogel. In compressed aerogel the coherent precession has been also found in (3)He-A. We demonstrate that the coherent precession of magnetization is a true BEC of magnons, with the magnon interaction term in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation being provided by spin-orbit coupling which is different for different states of the magnon BEC.
Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is a quantum phenomenon of formation of the collective quantum state, in which the macroscopic number of particles occupies the lowest energy state and thus is governed by a single wave function. Here we highlight the BEC in a magnetic subsystem -- the BEC of magnons, elementary magnetic excitations. Magnon BEC is manifested as the spontaneously emerging state of the precessing spins, in which all spins precess with the same frequency and phase even in the inhomogeneous magnetic field. We consider this phenomenon on example of spin precession in superfluid phases of 3^33He. The magnon BEC in these phases has all the properties of spin superfluidity. The states of the phase-coherent precession belong to the class of the coherent quantum states, which manifest themselves by superfluidity, superconductivity, quantum Hall effect, Josephson effect and many other macroscopic quantum phenomena.
The alternating current (ac) Josephson effect in a time-independent spatially-inhomogeneous setting is manifested by the occurrence of Josephson oscillations - periodic macroscopic phase-induced collective motions of the quantum condensate. So far, this phenomenon was observed at cryogenic temperatures in superconductors, in superfluid helium, and in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of trapped atoms. Here, we report on the discovery of the ac Josephson effect in a magnon BEC carried by a room-temperature ferrimagnetic film. The BEC is formed in a parametrically populated magnon gas in the spatial vicinity of a magnetic trench created by a dc electric current. The appearance of the Josephson effect is manifested by oscillations of the magnon BEC density in the trench, caused by a coherent phase shift between this BEC and the BEC in the nearby regions. Our findings advance the physics of room-temperature macroscopic quantum phenomena and will allow for their application for data processing in magnon spintronics devices.
Using the Aharonov-Casher (A-C) phase, we present a microscopic theory of the Josephson and persistent spin currents in quasiequilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of magnons in ferromagnetic insulators. Starting from a microscopic spin model that we map onto a Gross-Pitaevskii Hamiltonian, we derive a two-state model for the Josephson junction between the weakly coupled magnon-BECs. We then show how to obtain the alternating-current (ac) Josephson effect with magnons as well as macroscopic quantum self-trapping in a magnon-BEC. We next propose how to control the direct-current (dc) Josephson effect electrically using the A-C phase, which is the geometric phase acquired by magnons moving in an electric field. Finally, we introduce a magnon-BEC ring and show that persistent magnon-BEC currents flow due to the A-C phase. Focusing on the feature that the persistent magnon-BEC current is a steady flow of magnetic dipoles that produces an electric field, we propose a method to directly measure it experimentally.