A Magnon Scattering Platform

Authors: Tony X. Zhou1,2,†, Joris J. Carmiggelt1,3,†, Lisa M. Gächter1,4,†, Ilya Esterlis1, Dries Sels1,
Rainer J. Stöhr1,5, Chunhui Du1,6,8, Daniel Fernandez1, Joaquin F. Rodriguez-Nieva1, Felix
Büttner7, Eugene Demler1 and Amir Yacoby1,2,*.

Affiliations
1
Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138,
USA.
2
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts 02138, USA.
3
Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of
Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
4
Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
5
Center for Applied Quantum Technology and 3rd Institute of Physics, University of Stuttgart,
70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
7
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
8
Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093.

* Correspondence to: yacoby@physics.harvard.edu

†
These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract: Scattering experiments have revolutionized our understanding of nature. Examples

include the discovery of the nucleus, crystallography, and the discovery of the double helix

structure of DNA. Scattering techniques differ by the type of the particles used, the interaction

these particles have with target materials and the range of wavelengths used. Here, we demonstrate

a new 2-dimensional table-top scattering platform for exploring magnetic properties of materials

on mesoscopic length scales. Long lived, coherent magnonic excitations are generated in a thin

film of YIG and scattered off a magnetic target deposited on its surface. The scattered waves are

then recorded using a scanning NV center magnetometer that allows sub-wavelength imaging and
operation under conditions ranging from cryogenic to ambient environment. While most scattering

platforms measure only the intensity of the scattered waves, our imaging method allows for spatial

determination of both amplitude and phase of the scattered waves thereby allowing for a systematic

reconstruction of the target scattering potential. Our experimental results are consistent with

theoretical predictions for such a geometry and reveal several unusual features of the magnetic

response of the target, including suppression near the target edges and gradient in the direction

perpendicular to the direction of surface wave propagation. Our results establish magnon scattering

experiments as a new platform for studying correlated many-body systems.

Main Text:

Scattering experiments use a coherent source of waves or particles that impinge on a

specimen with well-defined energy and momentum. The scattered waves form a unique fingerprint

of the specimen that can then be used to reconstruct certain underlying material properties. For

example, optical scattering has provided deep insight into the underlying dielectric response of

materials and has enabled the exploration of dipole-coupled excitations such as excitons (1),

polaritons (2), and nonlinear optical phenomena (3). At short wavelengths, x-ray scattering can

reveal the underlying atomic structure of materials, and neutron scattering provides the ability to

study magnetic order down to the atomic scale (4). Often, however, existing scattering methods

require large quantities of material in order to have an appreciable scattering intensity. Materials

such as 2-dimensional (2D) layered materials, for example, pose a severe challenge to traditional

scattering platforms since they are only a few monolayers thick and typically only a few

micrometers wide. Developing alternative table-top scattering techniques for mesoscopic samples

is therefore required. Here, we demonstrate for the first time a table-top scattering platform (Fig.
1A) that uses coherent magnonic waves as the impinging particles. To establish this as a new

scattering platform we need to demonstrate: 1) The ability to launch coherent waves with well

defined energy and momentum; 2) Accurate detection of scattered waves, ideally, both amplitude

and phase; 3) Show that we have appreciable interaction of magnons with the target material; and

4) Achieve reliable extraction of target material properties. Below, we demonstrate that we have

successfully achieved all of these goals.

Launching Magnons - Since magnons cannot propagate in free space, we use a thin film of Yttrium

Iron Garnet (YIG) as the ‘vacuum’ supporting coherent long lived magnonic excitations with well-

defined energy and momentum. Coherent generation of magnons in YIG is well established

scientifically (5) with high degree of control and tunability in phase, amplitude, and wavelength

spanning several nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. We generate magnons in YIG using a

micro stripline deposited on the surface of a 100 nm thick YIG grown on Gd3Ga5O12 (GGG)

substrate (6) (Fig. 1A). By driving a microwave current through the stripline, coherent magnonic

excitations are launched at the frequency of the microwaves and at a wavelength set by the

underlying magnonic dispersion, (k), in YIG (7). In the presence of an external magnetic field

pointing along the stripline (Fig. 1B, left), this geometry launches magnons with k-vector

perpendicular to the microwave current direction.

Detection of scattered waves - A key component of a scattering platform is the ability to image the

scattered waves. Currently, there are several established techniques for imaging magnons in YIG

including Brillouin light scattering (8, 9), optical Kerr microscopy (10), and resonant X-ray

microscopy (11). Here, we demonstrate the use of a single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in

diamond as a local sensor for magnonic excitations sensitive to both amplitude and phase with

nanometer resolution.
 The low-energy manifold of an NV center consists of an S=1 spin triplet. Its ground state

corresponds to 𝑚𝑠 = 0 and its excited states consist of 𝑚𝑠 = ±1 states. At zero magnetic field,

the 𝑚𝑠 = 0 state is split from the excited state by 2.87 GHz. Application of a finite magnetic field

along the NV axis splits the 𝑚𝑠 = ±1 states by 2𝛾 𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝑥𝑡 allowing for static magnetic field

detection (Fig. 1B, right). As a scanning probe, NV center microscopy (12, 13) has recently been

used to image spin textures of skyrmions (14), non-collinear antiferromagnets (15), magnetic

domains in 2D material (16), and viscous current flow (17).

Propagating magnons and the scattered magnons due to the target generate local time

varying magnetic fields above the YIG. These can be detected by an NV center if the frequency of

the magnons matches that of the electron spin resonance (ESR) of the NV center. We use an

external magnetic field to tune the ESR frequency of the NV center to match that of the excited

magnons (Fig. 1B). Under these conditions, the NV center undergoes transitions from its ground

state to one of its excited states (typically the 𝑚𝑠 = −1 state) and its corresponding fluorescence

will reflect the occupation of the NV center. In the 𝑚𝑠 = 0 state, the fluorescence is strong, and it

is weaker in the excited states. Under weak continuous drive, the fluorescence is proportional to

the intensity of the driving field which in turn is directly proportional to the amplitude of the

magnonic excitation at that location. Fig. 1E shows the fluorescence of an NV center as a function

of the magnon frequency and 𝐵𝑒𝑥𝑡 . A clear decrease in NV fluorescence can be seen when the

magnon frequency matches the NV ESR frequency. When the driving AC magnetic field generated

by the magnons is strong and coherent, Rabi oscillation of the NV center can be detected (Fig. 1E,

inset). When the excitation frequency matches the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) of YIG,

additional suppression of fluorescence can be observed in Fig. 1E. This effect results from FMR

generated magnons and associated magnetic field noise at the NV ESR frequencies (18).
 We determine the phase of the propagating coherent magnons using an interference scheme

(6). In the rotating frame of the NV center, the phase of the oscillating field determines the axis

along which the spin rotates (Fig. 1C). To determine this axis, and hence the phase, we apply

another RF reference field that is uniform in space, both in amplitude and phase, and has the same

ESR frequency. This is achieved using a wire antenna situated several tens of micrometers away

from the sample (loop in Fig. 1A). The total AC field driving the NV center is a vector sum of the

field generated locally by the magnon and the reference field:

𝐵𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝐵𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑛 + 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑓 = 𝑅𝑒{𝑒 𝑖(𝑘𝑥−𝜔𝑡) +𝑒 𝑖(−𝜔𝑡+𝜑) } = 𝑅𝑒{[𝑒 𝑖𝑘𝑥 +𝑒 𝑖𝜑) ](𝑒 −𝑖𝜔𝑡 )} (1)

Here, k is the wavenumber, ω is the drive frequency and φ is the phase difference between

reference field and magnon field. The amplitude of both signals is normalized to 1 for intuitive

illustration (Fig. 1, C and D). By scanning the NV probe across the sample, we observe an increase

of fluorescence at locations where the magnon field is exactly out of phase with the reference field

(Fig. 2A). These peaks in fluorescence recur each time we move a distance corresponding to one

wavelength of the magnons. As we vary the phase difference of the two microwave sources we

are able to capture the real space propagating component of the magnons (Fig. 2B). A full movie

can be seen in supplementary information (6). Extracting the wavelength of magnons as a function

of frequency allows us to directly extract the dispersion relation of the magnons (Fig. 2, C and F).

We determine the dispersion down to a wavelength of 640 nm (Fig. 2D and E) limited only by the

inefficient generation of magnons by the stripline at shorter wavelengths described in detail below.

Even with this simple RF waveguide design (6), we nevertheless are on par with the shortest

magnon wavelength detected using visible optical techniques (19–22).

 We first employ our NV magnon detection scheme to characterize the generation of

magnons from the stripline (23, 24). At a given drive frequency, ω, only magnons of wavevector

k that satisfy the dispersion relation of the magnetic medium are launched. However, the excitation

efficiency associated with a particular k is also set by the spatial geometry of the stripline. While

magnons with wavelengths larger than the width of the stripline can be easily excited, this is not

true for magnons with wavelengths considerably shorter than this width. The excitation efficiency

of the stripline as a function of k is governed by the normalized Fourier transform of the spatial

microwave field generated by the rectangular stripline, 𝐻(𝑘) (Fig. 3A). Besides the fact that NV

center measures the magnetic field generated by magnons of this wavevector, however, our

measured value is further scaled by 𝐷(𝑘, 𝑧) ∝ 𝑘𝑒 −𝑘𝑧 (25) also known as the filter function. Both

𝐻(𝑘) and 𝐷(𝑘, 𝑧) are shown in Fig. 3A. The total measured magnetic field is therefore expected

to be given by:

|𝐵𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑛 | = 𝐴 × 𝐷(𝑘, 𝑧) × 𝐻(𝑘) (2)

where 𝐴 is a pre-factor accounting for the NV axis oriented at an angle relative to the YIG and z

is the distance between NV and YIG surface (Fig 1B, left inset). Fig. 3D shows both ESR and Rabi

measurements due to magnons excited at different frequencies. The oscillatory function due to

𝐻(𝑘) is clearly visible. Fig. 3B shows the ESR response along the NV ESR line taken at different

NV heights above the YIG. A shift in weight of the ESR spectrum to lower k is visible for higher

z in accordance with the expected NV filter function. Ultimately, what we are doing in the section

is to experimentally determine the point spread function of the “detector” to be used in following

scattering experiment.
Interaction of magnons with a target material - We now turn to describe the interaction of

magnonic waves with a target material. For our target, we use a 100-nm thick Py disk with 5-

micron diameter deposited directly onto the YIG. Coherent magnonic plane waves are launched

using our microwave stripline. Upon impinging on the Py disk as described below, magnons are

scattered, and the coherent sum of the scattered and unscattered magnons is measured (Fig. 4A).

The modulation in intensity observed suggests that the scattering of magnons is a coherent,

inelastic process. Additionally, we find that the scattered magnons are confined within an angular

opening 2𝜃𝑐 which is a direct consequence of the chiral nature of the magnons excited (26–28). A

second scattering map containing information on the local scattering phase is generated by

applying an additional RF signal from the distant antenna (Fig. 4D). The RF field due to the

antenna interferes with the magnetic field generated by the scattered and unscattered waves thereby

producing an image that encodes information about the local phase of the scattered waves.

Reliable extraction of target material properties - The most prominent features in the wave pattern

of Fig. 4 A and D are (i) negligible back scattering and (ii) confinement of the scattered wave to a

cone ahead of the target. These qualitative features of the scattered wave are determined entirely

by the dispersion relation of the Damon-Eshbach surface waves (DESW), as has been extensively

studied in (5, 29–32). The negligible backscattering is due to the “field displacement

nonreciprocity" of the free DESW, which implies that waves will be localized on either the top or

bottom surfaces of the magnetic film, depending on the direction of propagation. The scattering

cone is a direct consequence of the specific dispersion relation of the DESW. The isofrequency

curves of the DESW dispersion asymptote to a cone in momentum space whose opening angle is

given by:
 𝜔+√𝜔2 −𝜔0 (𝜔0 +𝜔𝑀 )
𝜃𝑐 = sin−1 ( ). (3)
𝜔0 +𝜔𝑀

Here, 𝜔 is the mode frequency, 𝜔0 = 𝛾𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝑥𝑡 is and 𝜔𝑀 = 𝛾𝑒 𝑀𝑆 (6). The group velocity 𝐯𝑔 is

normal to isofrequency curves, and energy flow will therefore be limited to a cone in real space,

with opening angle 𝜃𝑐 with respect to the 𝑥-axis. For the frequency shown in Fig. 4A (𝑓 = 2.18

GHz), the opening angle obtained using Eq.3 is 𝜃𝑐 ≈ 34∘ . This is in reasonable agreement with

the measured opening angle, 𝜃𝑐 ≈ 28∘ ± 2∘ . Furthermore, it can be shown (29) that the mode

density of DESW diverges upon approaching 𝜃𝑐 , which explains the precipitous rise in the

amplitude of the scattered wave observed near the critical angle in Fig. 4 A and D. Beyond these

gross features, an intricate structure in the phase profile and contrast of the scattered wave can be

easily discerned. These details provide unique and detailed information about the target which we

exploit below.

To provide a quantitative model of the magnon scattering by the Py disk, we add a spatially

bounded AC source term to the wave equation for the DESW. We note that this simple model

ignores any DC coupling between the target and the YIG. Physically, this means that we ignore

modifications of the local magnetic permeability seen by the magnons in the vicinity of the target

– i.e., we neglect effects of the target on the magnon “vacuum." We then compute the Green’s

function for this wave equation, from which we can determine the scattered wave for an arbitrary

source. Conversely, equipped with the Green’s function and experimental wave patterns, we can

invert the problem to determine the scattering potential. In the spirit of conventional scattering

experiments, we adopt the latter approach to interrogate magnetic properties of the target.

In general, the scattered wave is given by the convolution 𝐵𝑠𝛼 (𝐫) = ∫𝑟′ 𝑑 3 𝐫′ 𝐺(𝐫 − 𝐫′

) 𝜕𝛼 [ ∇ ⋅ 𝐦(𝑟′) ], where 𝐺(𝐫) is the Green’s function, ∇ ⋅ 𝐦 is the source, and subscript 𝛼 denotes
a direction orthogonal to the NV axis. In principle, given 𝐵𝑠𝛼 and 𝐺, the source term is completely

determined by inverting the convolution. However, for the current experimental setup we find that

the presence of significant background as well as noise prohibit carrying out this procedure

explicitly (6). The inversion is therefore done by fitting the “source”, i.e. ∇ ⋅ 𝐦, to best match the

intensity pattern seen in the experiment. As basis functions for the fit we take the Gaussian function
2 +𝑦 2 )/𝜎 2
𝑒 −(𝑥 and its derivatives up to 8th order in both directions, where  is fixed to be the radius

of the Py disk. We separate the source into real and imaginary components (Fig. 4 B and C, left

and right insets), to reflect a possible phase shift of the scattered wave with respect to the incident

wave. Results of the analysis for the phase-resolved images are presented in Figure 4. Note that

we shifted the overall phase of the source in a way that makes it easier to separate components

with different symmetries. The simplest model of magnetization dynamics of the target excited

by the DESW corresponds to magnetic moment of the disk precessing around the direction of the

static field, i.e. in the xz-plane. Since the disk is very thin in the z-direction, the dominant

contribution to ∇ ⋅ 𝐦 should come from the x-derivative of the x-component of magnetization.

This should produce a dipolar pattern for the source aligned along the x-axis. Figure 4B, right inset

shows that the imaginary part of the source is indeed of the dipolar type, and it is almost an order

of magnitude larger than the real part (Fig. 4 B, left inset). The real part of the source has a

quadrupolar character which implies that the source has an additional gradient along the y-axis.

We remind the readers that incident wave is propagating along the x-axis, hence this y-gradient

cannot be related to the spatial profile of the incident wave. It appears to be an intrinsic feature of

the target revealed by our scattering experiment. We comment on several other interesting features

of our analysis. While we achieve excellent fit of our model to the phase images, using the same

parameters for the corresponding amplitude images does not automatically produce a good fit. We
expect that understanding this discrepancy requires introducing a more sophisticated version of

the Py disk/YIG interaction, including renormalization of static susceptibility parameters of YIG

below the target. Secondly, we find the best agreement between theoretically simulated phase

images and the experimental data when the target is represented using Gaussian based functions,

rather than functions with sharper edges. This suggests that response of the Py target near the disk

edges is strongly suppressed. Finally, experiments have been done in the regime where the

diameter of the target is of the order of the magnon wavelength. One can then expect the disc to

develop spatial gradients in the direction of propagation of DESW. Surprisingly, we find that the

main response of the target corresponds to magnetization of the entire disk oscillating as a whole.

Our magnonic scattering platform provides a new way for exploring mesoscopic materials.

While clearly suited for magnetic target materials, the time varying magnetic fields generated by

the magnons can also lead to strong interaction with other phases of matter such as superconductors,

topological insulators with conducting surface states, spin liquids and more, thereby providing new

insights into such phases that are unattainable by other methods.

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Acknowledgments

This work was primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences

Office, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under award DE-SC0001819. A. Y. is also

partly supported by ARO Grants No. W911NF-17-1-0023 and the Gordon and Betty Moore

Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative through Grant No. GBMF4531. Fabrication of samples was

supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences Office, Division of Materials

Sciences and Engineering under award DE-SC0019300. A.Y. also acknowledges support from

ARO grants W911NF-18-1-0316, and W911NF-1-81-0206. J.C. was supported by the Netherlands

Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO/OCW), as part of the Frontiers of Nanoscience

program. L.G. was supported by the Zeno-Karl-Schindler Master Thesis Grant. I.E., D.S., J.R-N.

and E.D. acknowledge support from Harvard-MIT CUA, AFOSR-MURI Photonic Quantum
Matter (award FA95501610323), DARPA DRINQS program (award D18AC00014), and Harvard

Quantum Initiative. D.S. acknowledges support from the FWO as post-doctoral fellow of the

Research Foundation Flanders. D.F acknowledges the support by the National Science Foundation

under Grant No. EFMA-1542807. Sample fabrication was performed at the Center for Nanoscale

Systems (CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI),

which is supported by the National Science Foundation un-der NSF award no. ECCS -1541959.

CNS is part of Harvard University. We thank Mathew Markham and Element Six (UK) for

providing diamond samples. We also thank Ronald Walsworth and Matthew Turner for annealing

diamonds, and Pablo Andrich and Sungkun Hong for fruitful discussions.
Fig. 1. Magnon scattering platform and coherent sensing with a single spin magnetometer

(A) Sketch of the magnon-based scattering platform, comprising a microwave stripline as a source,

a single NV on a scanned tip as a detector, 100-nm thick YIG as the ‘vacuum’ supporting long-

lived propagating magnons, and a disk-shaped target. The single NV magnetometer allows

detection of both amplitude and phase of the scattered magnons. (B) Left - Sketch of the magnon

dispersion shown in solid blue. Right - NV center energy diagram as function of external field (top)

and magnon spin gap (bottom shaded region). For any given magnetic field, there is a unique

frequency that matches the NV ESR frequency (e.g. 𝑚𝑠 = 0 ↔ −1) and a corresponding magnon

with the same frequency and a unique wavevector k determined from the dispersion of YIG, ω(k).

Inset: cross-sectional sketch of the YIG, the stripline indicating direction of magnon propagation

(blue arrow pointing towards right). The external magnetic field is applied along the NV axis which
is oriented parallel to the microwave stripline and tilted upwards along the diamond <111>

direction 35.26 degrees out of plane (light blue arrow pointing into the page and slightly upward).

(C) Bloch sphere representation of the NV spin state under the influence of an AC magnetic field

generated by the magnons and reference microwave radiation. The z axis of the sphere is in the

direction of NV axis, <111> in diamond. The green arrow represents the green light exciting the

NV center and the red arrows represent the different intensity of the emitted red light in each of

the spin states of the NV center. (D) Schematic phasor representation of the AC magnetic field

generated by magnons and reference microwave radiation. (E) Normalized fluorescence of the NV

center as a function of 𝐵𝑒𝑥𝑡 and frequency. Diminished fluorescence is observed when the

excitation matches the ESR frequency of the NV center and along the ferromagnetic resonance.

Inset: Observed Rabi oscillation along the NV ESR transition confirming the coherent nature of

the field generated by magnon.

Fig. 2. Phase imaging of coherent magnons and their dispersion.

(A) Spatial image of NV fluorescence under continuous drive of both the stripline and remote
antenna. The bright fluorescence signal corresponds to destructive interference of the reference
RF signal from the antenna and magnon signals (6). (B) Evolution of the magnon wavefront
observed by shifting the relative phase (0 to 2) of the reference source relative to the signal
supplied to the stripline. (C) Linecut of an interference pattern generated with magnon frequency
at 2.3 GHz corresponding to a wavelength of 2.35 μm. (D) Imaging magnons with short
wavelength. Magnons with wavelength down to 660 nm can easily be resolved. (E) Line average
of image from (D). (F) Magnon dispersion extracted from the fluorescence phase maps.
Fig. 3. Characterization of magnons generated by the microwave stripline

(A) Sketch in k space of the NV filter function 𝐷(𝑘, 𝑧) (blue, left axis) and magnetic field

generated by the microwave stripline 𝐻(𝑘) (black, right axis). Each k value is uniquely matched

by the external magnetic field and the corresponding ESR frequency. (B) ESR fluorescence of the

NV center as a function of k for various distances z of the NV center above the YIG. A clear

oscillation is observed in accordance with the expected behavior of 𝐻(𝑘). Solid lines are the

predicted filter function 𝐷(𝑘, 𝑧) (6). (C) Normalized fluorescence of the NV center as a function

of 𝐵 𝑒𝑥𝑡 and frequency. The dashed straight lines correspond to the nodes in the Fourier spectrum

of the simulated H(k) (6). Inset: Vertical linecut in the color map showing an ESR measurement

at 𝐵𝑒𝑥𝑡 = 132 G. Its contrast is directly proportional to magnon field amplitude. (D) Detailed ESR

and Rabi measurements along the NV ESR transition. Peaks in the oscillations correspond to

magnon modes that are excited efficiently by the microwave stripline. Arrows indicate magnonic

modes that are inefficiently excited according to our numerical simulation (6).
Fig. 4. Magnon scattering off a target

Magnons are launched from a microwave stripline on the bottom. While they propagate in the x-

direction, they impinge on a Py disk that was deposited on the surface of the YIG (indicated by

the white circle). (A) The incoming plane wave scatters from the defect and the magnetic field

fluctuations caused by the interference of this scattered wave with the incident wave is picked up

by the NV. The data is averaged of 39 runs and smoothened over a 100 nm Gaussian window to

reduce the noise. Close to the Py disk we observe a “flower” shaped magnetization profile,

consistent with static field from a saturated magnetic disk shifting the ESR frequency of NV center

to modulate fluoresce. A clear cone is observed, as expected from DESW theory. (B) Best fit for

a truncated basis set of localized sources. Inset, source image, left: real component, right:
imaginary component. (C) Theoretical prediction of the observed intensity if the source would be

described by a simple dipole (see inset, left: real component, right: imaginary component).

Theoretical model parameters are fit to the data as described in the supplement. (D) An additional

homogenous microwave field is superimposed on the magnon field. The resulting fringes clearly

indicate the plane wave nature of the magnons outside the Damon-Eshbach cone. Additional

fringes in the cone provide valuable information about the nature of the scatter. (E) Best fit for a

truncated set of localized sources. (F) Theoretical prediction of the observed intensity in panel D

for an optimized dipolar source.