Thermal as well as coherent lattice excitations interact with magnetic moments by spincaloritronic effects and magnetoelastic effects, respectively. It thus becomes possible to interconvert thermal gradients and spin excitations as well as coherent phonons and magnons. This opens an avenue for magnetization control in the absence of electrical currents and thus Ohmic losses. Because phonons and magnons have comparable group velocities the coupling can be highly efficient even at high wave-vectors.

We have demonstrated that locally confined thermal gradients can be used for the generation of spin-currents and for thermoelectric imaging of magnetic texture [1]. We experimentally study and quantitatively mode the resonant generation of spin waves by surface acoustic waves [2]. We have established acoustic spin-wave spectroscopy as a tool to determine non-reciprocal spin-wave propagation caused by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction [3].

[1]  M. Weiler, M. Althammer, F. D. Czeschka, H. Huebl, M. S. Wagner, M. Opel, I.-M. Imort, G. Reiss, A. Thomas, R. Gross, and S. T. B. Goennenwein, Local Charge and Spin Currents in Magnetothermal Landscapes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 106602 (2012).

[2]  M. Weiler, L. Dreher, C. Heeg, H. Huebl, R. Gross, M. S. Brandt, and S. T. B. Goennenwein, Elastically Driven Ferromagnetic Resonance in Nickel Thin Films, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 117601 (2011).

[3]  M. Küß, M. Heigl, L. Flacke, A. Hörner, M. Weiler, M. Albrecht, and A. Wixforth, Nonreciprocal Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Magnetoacoustic Waves, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 217203 (2020).