Observation of magnon pseudospin dynamics and the Hanle effect in antiferromagnetic insulators

The spin-1/2 of an electron makes it an archetypal two-level system and inspires thedescription of other two-level systems using an analogous pseudospin. The quantized spin excitations of an ordered antiferromagnet can be viewed as pairs of spin-up and -down magnons and can be characterized by a magnonic pseudospin. The similarity between electronic spin and magnonic pseudospin has triggered the prediction of exciting phenomena like emergent spin-orbit coupling and topological states in antiferromagnetic magnonics. In the last year, first experimental observations of the associated dynamics of antiferromagnetic pseudospin have been reported [1,2]. I will summarize these experimental and theoretical findings, introduce our next step to expand the concept of magnon pseudospin and the description of magnon pseudospin dynamics [3,4] and discuss the influence of dimensionality on the magnon Hanle effect. Additionally, I will show our recent experiments demonstrating control of magnon spin transport and pseudospin dynamics in thin films with varying thickness of the antiferromagnetic insulator hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) utilizing two Pt strips for all-electrical magnon injection and detection [1] . We observe an oscillation in polarity of the magnon spin signal at the detector as a function of the applied magnetic field, which we quantitatively explain in terms of diffusive magnon transport. In particular,we observe a coherent precession of the magnon pseudospin caused by the easy-plane anisotropy and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Moreover, we find peculiar changes in the magnon spin signal for thicker hematite layers. Our results are paramount in unnlocking the high potential of antiferromagnetic magnonics towards the realization of electronics-inspired phenomena.