Current research is focusing on three directions:

1. Magnonic Quantum Information Science

2. Magnetic Quantum Materials

3. Nanomagnetic quantum devices

Slow-Wave Hybrid Magnonics

Cavity magnonics is an emerging research area focusing on the coupling between magnons and photons. Despite its great potential for coherent information processing, it has been long restricted by the narrow interaction bandwidth. In this Letter, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel approach to achieve broadband photon-magnon coupling by adopting slow waves on engineered microwave waveguides. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that slow wave is combined with hybrid magnonics. Its unique properties promise great potentials for both fundamental research and practical applications, for instance, by deepening our understanding of the light-matter interaction in the slow wave regime and providing high-efficiency spin wave transducers. The device concept can be extended to other systems such as optomagnonics and magnomechanics, opening up new directions for hybrid magnonics. Phys. Rev. Lett.132, 116701 (2024)

Floquet cavity electromagnonics

Hybrid magnonics has recently attracted intensive attention as a promising platform for coherent information processing. In spite of its rapid development, on-demand control over the interaction of magnons with other information carriers, in particular, microwave photons in electromagnonic systems, has been long missing, significantly limiting the potential broad applications of hybrid magnonics. Here, we show that, by introducing Floquet engineering into cavity electromagnonics, coherent control on the magnon-microwave photon coupling can be realized. Leveraging the periodic temporal modulation from a Floquet drive, our first-of-its-kind Floquet cavity electromagnonic system enables the manipulation of the interaction between hybridized cavity electromagnonic modes. Moreover, we have achieved a new coupling regime in such systems: the Floquet ultrastrong coupling, where the Floquet splitting is comparable with or even larger than the level spacing of the two interacting modes, beyond the conventional rotating-wave picture. Our findings open up new directions for magnon-based coherent signal processing. Please see Phys. Rev. Lett.125, 237201 (2020)

Coherent Gate Operations in Hybrid Magnonics

Electromagnonics—the hybridization of spin excitations and electromagnetic waves—has been recognized as a promising candidate for coherent information processing in recent years. Among its various implementations, the lack of available approaches for real-time manipulation on the system dynamics has become a common and urgent limitation. In this work, by introducing a fast and uniform modulation technique, we successfully demonstrate a series of benchmark coherent gate operations in hybrid magnonics, including semiclassical analogies of Landau-Zener transitions, Rabi oscillations, Ramsey interference, and controlled mode swap operations. Our approach lays the groundwork for dynamical manipulation of coherent signals in hybrid magnonics and can be generalized to a broad range of applications. Please see Phys. Rev. Lett.126, 207202 (2021)

Coherent Pulse Echo in Hybrid Magnonics with Multimode Phonons

The hybridization of magnons and phonons is playing a critical role in the emerging field of hybrid magnonics because it combines the high tunability of magnetism with the long lifetime of mechanics for comprehensive coherent information processing. Recently there has been increasing interest in thin-film bulk acoustic waves because of their long lifetimes at high frequencies. However, the unique multimode nature of such phonon modes has not been exploited as an important resource for coherent information processing. In this Letter we study the simultaneous hybridization of multiple high-overtone bulk acoustic resonances with a magnon and a microwave mode. The demonstrated multimode hybridization allows us to observe coherent pulse echoes, opening opportunities for both fundamental studies and practical applications of hybrid magnonics. Please see Phys. Rev. Applied 16, 024009 (2021)

Strong Coupling between Magnons and Microwave Photons in On-Chip Ferromagnet-Superconductor Thin-Film Devices

We demonstrate strong magnon-photon coupling of a thin-film Permalloy device fabricated on a coplanar superconducting resonator. A coupling strength of 0.152 GHz and a cooperativity of 68 are found for a 30-nm-thick Permalloy stripe. The coupling strength is tunable by rotating the biasing magnetic field or changing the volume of Permalloy. We also observe an enhancement of magnon-photon coupling in the nonlinear regime of the superconducting resonator, which is attributed to the nucleation of dynamic flux vortices. Our results demonstrate a critical step towards future integrated hybrid systems for quantum magnonics and on-chip coherent information transfer. Please see Phys. Rev. Lett.123, 107701 (2019)

Experimental Observation of an Exceptional Surface in Synthetic Dimensions with Magnon Polaritons

Exceptional points (EPs) are singularities of energy levels in generalized eigenvalue systems. In this Letter, we demonstrate the surface of EPs on a magnon polariton platform composed of coupled magnons and microwave photons. Our experiments show that EPs form a three-dimensional exceptional surface (ES) when the system is tuned in a four-dimensional synthetic space. We demonstrate that there exists an exceptional saddle point (ESP) in the ES which originates from the unique couplings between magnons and microwave photons. Such an ESP exhibits unique anisotropic behaviors in both the real and imaginary parts of the eigenfrequencies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental observation of ES, opening up new opportunities for high-dimensional control of non-Hermitian systems. Please see Phys. Rev. Lett.123, 237202 (2019)

Extended Kohler’s Rule of Magnetoresistance

A notable phenomenon in topological semimetals is the violation of Kohler’s rule, which dictates that the magnetoresistance MR obeys a scaling behavior Here, we report a violation originating from thermally induced change in the carrier density. We find that the magnetoresistance of the Weyl semimetal TaP follows an extended Kohler’s rule with the temperature dependence of the carrier density associated with the Fermi level and the dispersion relation of the semimetal, providing a new way to reveal information on the electronic band structure. We offer a fundamental understanding of the violation and validity of Kohler’s rule in terms of different temperature responses of carrier density. We apply our extended Kohler’s rule to iron-based superconductors to settle a long-standing debate on the scaling behavior of the normal-state magnetoresistance of a superconductor. We further validate the extended Kohler’s rule and demonstrate its generality in a semiconductor, InSb, where the temperature-dependent carrier density can be reliably determined both theoretically and experimentally. Please see Phys. Rev. X 11, 041029 (2021)

Orbital-flop Induced Magnetoresistance Anisotropy in Rare Earth Monopnictide CeSb

The charge and spin of the electrons in solids have been extensively exploited in electronic devices and in the development of spintronics. Another attribute of electrons—their orbital nature—is attracting growing interest in understanding exotic phenomena and in creating the next-generation of quantum devices such as orbital qubits. Here, we report on orbital-flop-induced magnetoresistance anisotropy in CeSb. In the low temperature high magnetic-field driven ferromagnetic state, a series of additional minima appear in the angle-dependent magnetoresistance. These minima arise from the anisotropic magnetization originating from orbital-flops and from the enhanced electron scattering from magnetic multidomains formed around the first-order orbital-flop transition. The measured magnetization anisotropy can be accounted for with a phenomenological model involving orbital-flops and a spin-valve-like structure is used to demonstrate the viable utilization of orbital-flop phenomenon. Our results showcase a contribution of orbital behavior in the emergence of intriguing phenomena. Please see Nat. Commun. 10, 2875 (2019)

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in gallium arsenide quantum wells

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistances (NLMRs) have been recently observed in a variety of topological materials and often considered to be associated with Weyl fermions that have a defined chirality. Here we report NLMRs in non-Weyl GaAs quantum wells. In the absence of a magnetic field the quantum wells show a transition from semiconducting-like to metallic behaviour with decreasing temperature. We observe pronounced NLMRs up to 9 Tesla at temperatures above the transition and weak NLMRs in low magnetic fields at temperatures close to the transition and below 5 K. The observed NLMRs show various types of magnetic field behaviour resembling those reported in topological materials. We attribute them to microscopic disorder and use a phenomenological three-resistor model to account for their various features. Our results showcase a contribution of microscopic disorder in the occurrence of unusual phenomena. They may stimulate further work on tuning electronic properties via disorder/defect nano-engineering. Please see Nat. Commun. 10, 287 (2019)

Switchable geometric frustration in an artificial-spin-ice–superconductor heterosystem

Geometric frustration emerges when local interaction energies in an ordered lattice structure cannot be simultaneously minimized, resulting in a large number of degenerate states. The numerous degenerate configurations may lead to practical applications in microelectronics, such as data storage, memory and logic. However, it is difficult to achieve very high degeneracy, especially in a two-dimensional system. Here, we showcase in situ controllable geometric frustration with high degeneracy in a two-dimensional flux-quantum system. We create this in a superconducting thin film placed underneath a reconfigurable artificial-spin-ice structure. The tunable magnetic charges in the artificial-spin-ice strongly interact with the flux quanta in the superconductor, enabling switching between frustrated and crystallized flux quanta states. The different states have measurable effects on the superconducting critical current profile, which can be reconfigured by precise selection of the spin-ice magnetic state through the application of an external magnetic field. We demonstrate the applicability of these effects by realizing a reprogrammable flux quanta diode. The tailoring of the energy landscape of interacting ‘particles’ using artificial-spin-ices provides a new paradigm for the design of geometric frustration, which could illuminate a path to control new functionalities in other material systems, such as magnetic skyrmions, electrons and holes in two-dimensional materials, and topological insulators, as well as colloids in soft materials. Please see Nature. Nanotechnology. 13, 560 (2018)

Rewritable artificial magnetic charge ice

Artificial ices enable the study of geometrical frustration by design and through direct observation. However, it has proven difficult to achieve tailored long-range ordering of their diverse configurations, limiting both fundamental and applied research directions. We designed an artificial spin structure that produces a magnetic charge ice with tunable long-range ordering of eight different configurations. We also developed a technique to precisely manipulate the local magnetic charge states and demonstrate write-read-erase multifunctionality at room temperature. This globally reconfigurable and locally writable magnetic charge ice could provide a setting for designing magnetic monopole defects, tailoring magnonics, and controlling the properties of other two-dimensional materials. Please see Science.352, 962 (2016)