Coherent spin-wave transport in an antiferromagnet

Magnonics is a research field complementary to spintronics, in which quanta of spin waves (magnons) replace electrons as information carriers, promising lower dissipation(1–3). The development of ultrafast nanoscale magnonic logic circuits calls for new tools and materials to generate coherent spin waves with frequencies as high, and wavelengths as short, as possible(4,5). Antiferromagnets can host spin waves at terahertz (THz) frequencies and are therefore seen as a future platform for the fastest and the least dissipative transfer of information(6–11). However, the generation of short-wavelength coherent propagating magnons in antiferromagnets has so far remained elusive. Here we report the efficient emission and detection of a nanometer-scale wavepacket of coherent propagating magnons in antiferromagnetic DyFeO(3) using ultrashort pulses of light. The subwavelength confinement of the laser field due to large absorption creates a strongly non-uniform spin excitation profile, enabling the propagation of a broadband continuum of coherent THz spin waves. The wavepacket contains magnons with a shortest detected wavelength of 125 nm that propagate with supersonic velocities of more than 13 km/s into the material. This source of coherent short-wavelength spin carriers opens up new prospects for THz antiferromagnetic magnonics and coherence-mediated logic devices at THz frequencies.