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Nonreciprocal Magnons and Symmetry-Breaking in the Noncentrosymmetric Antiferromagnet.

Author
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
Journal
:
Physical review letters
Volume
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119
Issue
:
4
Number of Pages
:
047201
Date Published
:
2017
ISSN Number
:
0031-9007
URL
:
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v119/p047201
DOI
:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.047201
Short Title
:
Phys Rev Lett
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