Spin Superfluidity and Long-Range Transport in Thin-Film Ferromagnets

Hans Skarsvåg, Cecilia Holmqvist, Arne Brataas
2015 Physical Review Letters  
In ferromagnets, magnons may condense into a single quantum state. Analogous to superconductors, this quantum state may support transport without dissipation. Recent works suggest that longitudinal spin transport through a thin-film ferromagnet is an example of spin superfluidity. Although intriguing, this tantalizing picture ignores long-range dipole interactions; we demonstrate that such interactions dramatically affect spin transport. In single-film ferromagnets, "spin superfluidity" only
more » ... sts at length scales (a few hundred nanometers in yttrium iron garnet) somewhat larger than the exchange length. Over longer distances, dipolar interactions destroy spin superfluidity. Nevertheless, we predict re-emergence of spin superfluidity in tri-layer ferromagnet--normal metal--ferromagnet films of ∼ 1 μm in size. Such systems also exhibit other types of long-range spin transport in samples several micrometers in size.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.115.237201 pmid:26684138 fatcat:ebhon7nezbgb7dmpzwq7ygvpae