Publication Date

11-20-2020

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Physical Review B

Volume

102

Issue

18

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevB.102.180408

Abstract

Magnetic systems have been extensively studied both from a fundamental physics perspective and as building blocks for a variety of applications. Their topological properties, in particular those of excitations, remain relatively unexplored due to their inherently dissipative nature. The recent introduction of non-Hermitian topological classifications opens up new opportunities for engineering topological phases in dissipative systems. Here, we propose a magnonic realization of a non-Hermitian topological system. A crucial ingredient of our proposal is the injection of spin current into the magnetic system, which alters and can even change the sign of terms describing dissipation. We show that the magnetic dynamics of an array of spin-torque oscillators can be mapped onto a non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model exhibiting topologically protected edge states. Using exact diagonalization of the linearized dynamics and numerical solutions of the non-linear equations of motion, we find that a topological magnonic phase can be accessed by tuning the spin current injected into the array. In the topologically nontrivial regime, a single spin-torque oscillator on the edge of the array is driven into auto-oscillation and emits a microwave signal, while the bulk oscillators remain inactive. Our findings have practical utility for memory devices and spintronics neural networks relying on spin-torque oscillators as constituent units.

Funding Number

PHY-1748958

Funding Sponsor

National Science Foundation

Keywords

Magnons, Spin torque

Comments

This article originally appeared in Physical Review B, volume 102, issue 18, 2020, published by the American Physical Society. ©2020 American Physical Society. The article can also be found online at this link.

SJSU users: To read online, use the following link to login and access the article via SJSU databases.

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Download

Share

COinS