On the discovery of magnon sidebands in insulating antiferromagnets

Abstract

In this article, we reconstruct the course of events which led to the discovery and identification of magnon sidebands in the optical spectrum of simple antiferromagnetic insulators.b

Magnetochromic sensing and size-dependent collective excitations in iron oxide nanoparticles

“…Collective excitations and fine structure in α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles Antiferromagnets traditionally offer foundational opportunities for investigating collective excitations like excitons and magnons as well as features like magnon sidebands that arise from charge-spin coupling [49,50,54]. The latter arises from the dipoleallowed combination of an exciton and a magnon (ω MS = ω E + ω M ) and is commonly observed on the leading edge of a d-to-d band.…”

“…The latter arises from the dipoleallowed combination of an exciton and a magnon (ω MS = ω E + ω M ) and is commonly observed on the leading edge of a d-to-d band. [20,47,49,54,55] Exciton splitting and magnon sideband trends are incisive probes of symmetry, and their behavior can even be used to develop temperature-magnetic field phase diagrams. [20,55,56] While much is known about excitons, magnons, and magnon sidebands in antiferromagnets under external stimuli, there have been few opportunities to reveal finite length scale effects on the behavior of collective excitations.…”