Electrical non-Hermitian control of topological magnon spin transport

Abstract

Magnonic topological phases realize chiral edge spin waves that are protected against backscattering, potentially enabling highly efficient spin transport. Here we show that the spin transport through these magnonic chiral edge states can be electrically manipulated by non-Hermitian control. We consider the paradigmatic magnon Haldane model and show that it is transformed into an effective non-Hermitian magnon Chern insulator by including a sublattice-dependent spin-orbit torque. In linear spin-wave theory, this electrically induced torque reduces the damping of the chiral edge magnons along certain edge directions, leading to an enhancement of the spin-wave amplitude. This prediction is confirmed by numerical simulations based on the Landau-LifshitzGilbert equation. For a spin-wave transport setup, in which magnons are excited by a microwave field and detected with a normal metal conductor, we find that the magnon amplification is remarkably robust against disorder, establishing non-Hermitian control as a promising avenue for topological magnonics.