Collective spin excitations of helices and magnetic skyrmions: Review and perspectives of magnonics in non-centrosymmetric magnets

Abstract

Magnetic materials hosting correlated electrons play an important role for information technology and signal processing. The currently used ferro-, ferri- and antiferromagnetic materials provide microscopic moments (spins) that are mainly collinear. Recently more complex spin structures such as spin helices and cycloids have regained a lot of interest. The interest has been initiated by the discovery of the skyrmion lattice phase in non-centrosymmetric helical magnets. In this review we address how spin helices and skyrmion lattices enrich the microwave characteristics of magnetic materials and give rise to bottom-up magnonic crystals. When discussing perspectives for microwave electronics and magnonics we focus particularly on insulating materials as they avoid eddy current losses, offer low spin-wave damping, and allow for electric field control. Thereby, they further fuel the vision of magnonics operated at low energy consumption.