Using a combination of first-principles and magnetization-dynamics calculations, we study the effect of the intense optical excitation of phonons on the magnetic behavior in insulating magnetic materials. Taking the prototypical magnetoelectric Cr2O3 as our model system, we show that excitation of a polar mode at 17 THz causes a pronounced modification of the magnetic exchange interactions through a change in the average Cr-Cr distance. In particular, the quasi-static deformation induced by nonlinear phononic coupling yields a structure with a modified magnetic state, which persists for the duration of the phonon excitation. In addition, our time-dependent magnetization dynamics computations show that systematic modulation of the magnetic exchange interaction by the phonon excitation modifies the magnetization dynamics. This temporal modulation of the magnetic exchange interaction strengths using phonons provides a new route to creating non-equilibrium magnetic states and suggests new avenues for fast manipulation of spin arrangements and dynamics. arXiv:1707.03216v3 [cond-mat.str-el]

We study a quantum Otto engine operating on the basis of a helical spin-1/2 multiferroic chain with strongly coupled magnetic and ferroelectric order parameters. The presence of a finite spin chirality in the working substance enables steering of the cycle by an external electric field that couples to the electric polarization. We observe a direct connection between the chirality, the entanglement and the efficiency of the engine. An electric-field dependent threshold temperature is identified, above which the pair correlations in the system, as quantified by the thermal entanglement, diminish. In contrast to the pair correlations, the collective many-body thermal entanglement is less sensitive to the electric field, and in the high temperature limit converges to a constant value. We also discuss the correlations between the threshold temperature of the pair entanglement, the spin chirality and the minimum of the fidelities in relation to the electric and magnetic fields. The efficiency of the quantum Otto cycle shows a saturation plateau with increasing electric field amplitude.Keywords: quantum heat engine, quantum entanglement, frustrated spin chain, multiferroic system IntroductionWith the advances in nanotechnology enabling controlled miniaturization and functionalization of nanostructured materials, questions related to the thermodynamical properties are gaining increased attention. Several theoretical proposals were put forward for nanoscale Brownian motors [1], refrigerators [2] and quantum heat engines [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. On the other hand, for finite systems, the application of the laws of thermodynamics is the subject of an ongoing debate [14]. One of the fundamental questions concerns the size limit to which the working substance might be scaled down. Recent studies point out that the quantum nature of a size-quantized working substance, e.g. a quantum heat engine, may lead to a close connection between the efficiency of the cycle and quantum correlations [15], which can be quantified in terms of the entanglement [16][17][18], behavior that is atypical for classical engines. According to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, the efficiency of a classical engine is independent of its detail and is solely determined by the character of the cycle itself and the temperatures of the heat baths. The quantum nature of the working substance, however, has key consequences for the engine output power as well. Recently it was shown that purely quantum phenomena, such as noise-induced coherence, yield greater engine output power [19,20].In general, physical phenomena at the cross-over of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics are the subjects of the emergent field of quantum thermodynamics where, among other topics, questions are addressed as to what extent standard classical thermodynamic cycles, such as Carnot or Otto cycles, can be reformulated for quantum systems [4]. A key issue thereby is the difference between thermodynamic and quantum adiabatic processes. For example, a thermodynamical ...

Based on the solution of the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation discretized for a ferromagnetic chain subject to a uniform temperature gradient, we present a detailed numerical study of the spin dynamics with a focus particularly on finite-size effects. We calculate and analyze the net longitudinal spin current for various temperature gradients, chain lengths, and external static magnetic fields. In addition, we model an interface formed by a nonuniformly magnetized finite-size ferromagnetic insulator and a normal metal and inspect the effects of enhanced Gilbert damping on the formation of the space-dependent spin current within the chain. A particular aim of this study is the inspection of the spin Seebeck effect beyond the linear response regime. We find that within our model the microscopic mechanism of the spin Seebeck current is the magnon accumulation effect quantified in terms of the exchange spin torque. According to our results, this effect drives the spin Seebeck current even in the absence of a deviation between the magnon and phonon temperature profiles. Our theoretical findings are in line with the recently observed experimental results by M. Agrawal et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 107204 (2013).

A quantum thermodynamic cycle with a chiral multiferroic working substance such as LiCu2O2 is presented. Shortcuts to adiabaticity are employed to achieve an efficient, finite time quantum thermodynamic cycle which is found to depend on the spin ordering. The emergent electric polarization associated with the chiral spin order, i.e. the magnetoelectric coupling, renders possible steering of the spin order by an external electric field and hence renders possible an electric-field control of the cycle. Due to the intrinsic coupling between of the spin and the electric polarization, the cycle performs an electro-magnetic work. We determine this work's mean square fluctuations, the irreversible work, and the output power of the cycle. We observe that the work mean square fluctuations are increased with the duration of the adiabatic strokes while the irreversible work and the output power of the cycle show a non-monotonic behavior. In particular the irreversible work vanishes at the end of the quantum adiabatic strokes. This fact confirms that the cycle is reversible. Our theoretical findings evidence the existence of a system inherent maximal output power. By implementing a Lindblad master equation we quantify the role of thermal relaxations on the cycle efficiency. We also discuss the role of entanglement encoded in the non-collinear spin order as a resource to affect the quantum thermodynamic cycle.

Following the theoretical approach by Xiao et al [Phys. Rev. B 81, 214418 (2010)] to the spin Seebeck effect, we calculate the mean value of the total spin current flowing through a normalmetal/ferromagnet interface. The spin current emitted from the ferromagnet to the normal metal is evaluated in the framework of the Fokker-Planck approach for the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. We show that the total spin current depends not only on the temperature difference between the electron and the magnon baths, but also on the external magnetic field and magnetic anisotropy. Apart from this, the spin current is shown to saturate with increasing magnon temperature, and the saturation temperature increases with increasing magnetic field and/or magnetic anisotropy.