Visualization of Moiré Magnons in Monolayer Ferromagnet

Nano Lett. 2023 Apr 26;23(8):3412-3417. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c00417. Epub 2023 Apr 11.

Abstract

Two-dimensional magnetic materials provide an ideal platform to explore collective many-body excitations associated with spin fluctuations. In particular, it should be feasible to explore, manipulate, and ultimately design magnonic excitations in two-dimensional van der Waals magnets in a controllable way. Here we demonstrate the emergence of moiré magnon excitations, stemming from the interplay of spin-excitations in monolayer CrBr3 and the moiré pattern arising from the lattice mismatch with the underlying substrate. The existence of moiré magnons is further confirmed via inelastic quasiparticle interference, showing the appearance of a dispersion pattern correlated with the moiré length scale. Our results provide a direct visualization in real-space of the dispersion of moiré magnons, demonstrating the versatility of moiré patterns in creating emergent many-body excitations.

Keywords: magnon; moiré modulation; monolayer chromium tribromide; scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy; two-dimensional ferromagnet.