arXiv subjects

Verena Brehm

Publications and source records attributed to Verena Brehm.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ferron Hall effect: Transverse accumulation of polarization driven by thermal gradients in ferroelectrics

The phonon Hall effect describes the generation of a transverse heat current in response to a longitudinal thermal gradient in a magnetic field. Here, we theoretically demonstrate that, when the lattice excitations deflected by the Hall effect carry electric dipole moments, their transverse motion produces an accumulation of electric polarization in ferroelectric materials. This accumulation is driven by lattice excitations that carry polarization, known as ferrons, and we therefore call the mechanism the ferron Hall effect. Using atomistic lattice dynamics with parameters obtained from density functional theory, we illustrate the effect in the prototypical ferroelectric BaTiO3. Our results identify ferrons as the electric-polarization analogues of magnons in transverse transport and provide a route toward thermal and magnetic manipulation of ferroic order.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Atomistic theory of the phonon angular momentum Hall effect

The spin and orbital Hall effects convert longitudinal charge currents into transverse flows of electronic angular momentum. Here we develop an atomistic theory of the recently proposed lattice-vibrational analogue, in which a longitudinal heat current driven by a thermal gradient is converted into a transverse current of phonon angular momentum. We derive a microscopic real-space expression for this current and show that it originates from thermally induced mixing of polarized vibrational motion, leading to a characteristic edge accumulation of phonon angular momentum. We demonstrate the effect in minimal square- and honeycomb-lattice models and compute the resulting phonon angular momentum accumulations for a range of example materials using input from first-principles calculations. Our results confirm that the phonon angular momentum Hall effect is a universal response of crystalline solids and our framework is generically applicable to all materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Thickness-dependent magnon spin transport in antiferromagnetic insulators: Crossover from quasi-three-dimensional to quasi-two-dimensional regimes

Motivated by the recent observation of giant room-temperature magnon spin conductivity in an ultrathin ferromagnetic insulator [X.-Y. Wei et al., Nat. Mater. 21, 1352 (2022)], we investigate thickness-dependent magnon spin transport in thin antiferromagnetic insulators (AFIs). We study the prototypical AFI hematite, known for its exceptionally low magnetic damping and two distinct magnetic phases: a low-temperature uniaxial easy-axis phase and a high-temperature biaxial easy-plane phase. Using stochastic micromagnetic simulations, we investigate thickness-dependent magnon spin transport across both magnetic phases. Our results uncover a crossover from quasi-three-dimensional to quasi-two-dimensional magnon spin transport at a critical thickness, determined by the frequency or energy of the excited magnons. Below this critical thickness, we observe a pronounced enhancement in the magnon diffusion length in both magnetic phases. This rise is attributed to a change in the effective magnon density of states, reflecting the reduced phase space available for scattering in the thinner, quasi-two-dimensional regime. Understanding and controlling long-distance magnon spin transport in AFIs is crucial for developing next-generation spintronic nanodevices, especially as materials approach the two-dimensional limit.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Stability of chiral magnon condensates in collinear antiferromagnetic insulators

Quasiequilibrium magnon Bose-Einstein condensates in ferromagnetic insulators have been a field of great interest, while condensation in antiferromagnetic systems has not yet been explored in detail. We analyze the stability of condensed chiral magnons in two antiferromagnetic insulators: a uniaxial easy-axis system and a biaxial system. We show that two-component magnon condensation and inter-magnon interactions are essential to create metastable magnon condensation. The uniaxial system with a Rashba-type Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction supports two degenerate condensate populations at finite wave vectors. We find that the condensation state in this model is (meta)stable only when the distribution of condensed magnons between the two populations is symmetric. In addition, we demonstrate the emergence of a zero-sound-like Goldstone mode in antiferromagnetic systems that support two-component magnon condensation. On the other hand, in the biaxial system without Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, we predict that the magnon condensate cannot stabilize due to the breaking of the magnon degeneracy. Our results suggest that this instability is a general characteristic of single-component quasiequilibrium quasiparticle condensates.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Intrinsic Spin Nernst Effect and Chiral Edge Modes in van der Waals Ferromagnetic Insulators: Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vs. Kitaev Interactions

The thermomagnetic Nernst effect and chiral edge states are key signatures of nontrivial topology and emerging Berry curvature in magnonic systems. Implementing atomistic spin simulations, we theoretically demonstrate the emergence of chiral magnon edge states at the boundaries of a ferromagnetic hexagonal lattice in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and Kitaev interactions, which are robust against nonlinear magnon interactions. In our simulations, we consider the spin parameters of CrI$_3$ as a prototype of van der Waals magnetic layers. We show that the spin accumulation is reduced in the presence of Kitaev spin interactions compared to systems governed by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. This reduction stems from the breaking of the $U(1)$ symmetry, which leads to a shorter spin coherence length imposed by the Kitaev interaction. We propose that measuring the angular dependence of the Nernst signal in a magnetic field provides an effective indirect method for identifying the microscopic origin of topological magnons. Our findings hold promising potential for advancing next-generation energy-harvesting Nernst materials and facilitating the integration of topological magnetic materials with spintronic-based quantum technologies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Topological magnon gap engineering in van der Waals CrI$_3$ ferromagnets

The microscopic origin of the topological magnon band gap in CrI$_3$ ferromagnets has been a subject of controversy for years since two main models with distinct characteristics, i.e., Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) and Kitaev, provided possible explanations with different outcome implications. Here we investigate the angular magnetic field dependence of the magnon gap of CrI$_3$ by elucidating what main contributions play a major role in its generation. We implement stochastic atomistic spin dynamics simulations to compare the impact of these two spin interactions on the magnon spectra. We observe three distinct magnetic field dependencies between these two gap opening mechanisms. First, we demonstrate that the Kitaev-induced magnon gap is influenced by both the direction and amplitude of the applied magnetic field, while the DM-induced gap is solely affected by the magnetic field direction. Second, the position of the Dirac cones within the Kitaev-induced magnon gap shifts in response to changes in the magnetic field direction, whereas they remain unaffected by the magnetic field direction in the DM-induced gap scenario. Third, we find a direct-indirect magnon band-gap transition in the Kitaev model by varying the applied magnetic field direction. These differences may distinguish the origin of topological magnon gaps in CrI$_3$ and other van der Waals magnetic layers. Our findings pave the way for exploration and engineering topological gaps in van der Waals materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Magnon dispersion and spin transport in CrCl$_3$ bilayers under different strain-induced magnetic states

Atomically-thin van der Waals magnetic materials offer exceptional opportunities to mechanically and electrically manipulate magnetic states and spin textures. The possibility of efficient spin transport in these materials makes them promising for the development of novel nanospintronics technology. Using atomistic spin dynamics simulations, we investigate magnetic ground state, magnon dispersion, critical temperature, and magnon spin transport in CrCl$_3$ bilayers in the absence and presence of compressive and tensile strains. We show that in the presence of mechanical strain, the magnon band gap at the $Γ$ point and the critical temperature of the bilayer are increased. Furthermore, our simulations show that the magnon diffusion length is reduced in the presence of strain. Moreover, by exciting magnons through the spin Seebeck effect and spin Hall-induced torque, we illustrate distinctions between magnon spin transport in the antiferromagnetic state, under compressive strains, and ferromagnetic states, under tensile strains or in the unstrained case.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

A proposal for leaky integrate-and-fire neurons by domain walls in antiferromagnetic insulators

Brain-inspired neuromorphic computing is a promising path towards next generation analogue computers that are fundamentally different compared to the conventional von Neumann architecture. One model for neuromorphic computing that can mimic the human brain behavior are spiking neural networks (SNNs), of which one of the most successful is the leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) model. Since conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices are not meant for modelling neural networks and are energy inefficient in network applications, recently the focus shifted towards spintronic-based neural networks. In this work, using the advantage of antiferromagnetic insulators, we propose a non-volatile magnonic neuron that could be the building block of a LIF spiking neuronal network. In our proposal, an antiferromagnetic domain wall in the presence of a magnetic anisotropy gradient mimics a biological neuron with leaky, integrating, and firing properties. This single neuron is controlled by polarized antiferromagnetic magnons, activated by either a magnetic field pulse or a spin transfer torque mechanism, and has properties similar to biological neurons, namely latency, refraction, bursting and inhibition. We argue that this proposed single neuron, based on antiferromagnetic domain walls, is faster and has more functionalities compared to previously proposed neurons based on ferromagnetic systems.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2023

Micromagnetic study of spin transport in easy-plane antiferromagnetic insulators

Magnon eigenmodes in easy-plane antiferromagnetic insulators are linearly polarized and are not expected to carry any net spin angular momentum. Motivated by recent nonlocal spin transport experiments in the easy-plane phase of hematite, we perform a series of micromagnetic simulations in a nonlocal geometry at finite temperatures. We show that by tuning an external magnetic field, we can control the magnon eigenmodes and the polarization of the spin transport signal in these systems. We argue that a coherent beating oscillation between two orthogonal linearly polarized magnon eigenmodes is the mechanism responsible for finite spin transport in easy-plane antiferromagnetic insulators. The sign of the detected spin signal is also naturally explained by the proposed coherent beating mechanism. Our finding opens a path for on-demand control of the spin signal in a large class of easy-plane antiferromagnetic insulators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Magnonic Proximity Effect in Insulating Ferro- and Antiferromagnetic Trilayers

The design of spin-transport based devices such as magnon transistors or spin valves will require multilayer systems composed of different magnetic materials with different physical properties. Such layered structures can show various interface effects, one class of which being proximity effects, where a certain physical phenomenon that occurs in the one layers leaks into another one. In this work a magnetic proximity effect is studied in trilayers of different ferro- and antiferromagnetic materials within an atomistic spin model. We find the magnetic order in the central layer - with lower critical temperature - enhanced, even for the case of an antiferromagnet surrounded by ferromagnets. We further characterize this proximity effect via the magnon spectra which are specifically altered, especially for the case of the antiferromagnet in the central layer.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗