Nonreciprocal Magnons and Symmetry-Breaking in the Noncentrosymmetric Antiferromagnet.
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Abstract | :
Inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed to study spin dynamics in the noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnet α-Cu_{2}V_{2}O_{7}. For the first time, nonreciprocal magnons were experimentally measured in an antiferromagnet. These nonreciprocal magnons are caused by the incompatibility between anisotropic exchange and antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, which arise from broken symmetry, resulting in a collinear ordered state but helical spin dynamics. The nonreciprocity introduces the difference in the phase velocity of the counterrotating modes, causing the opposite spontaneous magnonic Faraday rotation of the left- and right-propagating spin waves. The breaking of spatial inversion and time reversal symmetry is revealed as a magnetic-field-induced asymmetric energy shift, which provides a test for the detailed balance relation. |
Year of Publication | :
2017
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Journal | :
Physical review letters
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Volume | :
119
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Issue | :
4
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Number of Pages | :
047201
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Date Published | :
2017
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ISSN Number | :
0031-9007
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URL | :
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v119/p047201
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DOI | :
10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.047201
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Short Title | :
Phys Rev Lett
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