Abstract

Utilizing magnons, the quanta of spin waves, as information carriers is a highly promising approach for low-power consumption devices devoid of Joule heating. The quest to harness magnonic spin waves, aided by insights from topological matter, has led to the emergence of the new field of topological magnonics. Owing to their spatially periodic noncollinear magnetic texture, skyrmion crystals have been predicted to support topologically protected magnonic edge states. We show that antiferromagnetic skyrmion crystals also host such topological edge states even within the first bulk magnon gap. Furthermore, we show that the control of robust magnon spin currents, essential for applications, could be achieved in ferromagnetic skyrmion crystals. Taking advantage of a topological phase transition in their spin wave spectrum, we show that an external magnetic field allows one to switch on and off chiral magnon currents carried by topological edge states. Our findings establish a profound symbiotic research direction for the fields of magnonics and magnetic skyrmions, positioning skyrmion crystals as novel platforms for topological magnonics.
1. [1] S. A. Díaz, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 187203 (2019).
2. [2] S. A. Díaz, et al., arXiv:1910.05214; Phys. Rev. Research (accepted).