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Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets

Emergent axion electrodynamics in magneto-electric media is expected to provide novel ways to detect and control material properties with electromagnetic fields. However, despite being studied intensively for over a decade, its theoretical understanding remains mostly confined to the static limit. H...

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Autores principales: Ahn, Junyeong, Xu, Su-Yang, Vishwanath, Ashvin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9734152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36494356
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35248-8
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author Ahn, Junyeong
Xu, Su-Yang
Vishwanath, Ashvin
author_facet Ahn, Junyeong
Xu, Su-Yang
Vishwanath, Ashvin
author_sort Ahn, Junyeong
collection PubMed
description Emergent axion electrodynamics in magneto-electric media is expected to provide novel ways to detect and control material properties with electromagnetic fields. However, despite being studied intensively for over a decade, its theoretical understanding remains mostly confined to the static limit. Here, we introduce a theory of axion electrodynamics at general frequencies. We define a proper optical axion magneto-electric coupling through its relation to optical surface Hall conductivity and provide ways to calculate it in lattice systems. By employing our formulas, we show that axion electrodynamics can lead to a significant Kerr effect in thin-film antiferromagnets at wavelengths that are seemingly too long to resolve the spatial modulation of magnetism. We identify the wavelength scale above which the Kerr effect is suppressed. Our theory is particularly relevant to materials like MnBi(2)Te(4), a topological antiferromagnet whose magneto-electric response is shown here to be dominated by the axion contribution even at optical frequencies.
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spelling pubmed-97341522022-12-11 Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets Ahn, Junyeong Xu, Su-Yang Vishwanath, Ashvin Nat Commun Article Emergent axion electrodynamics in magneto-electric media is expected to provide novel ways to detect and control material properties with electromagnetic fields. However, despite being studied intensively for over a decade, its theoretical understanding remains mostly confined to the static limit. Here, we introduce a theory of axion electrodynamics at general frequencies. We define a proper optical axion magneto-electric coupling through its relation to optical surface Hall conductivity and provide ways to calculate it in lattice systems. By employing our formulas, we show that axion electrodynamics can lead to a significant Kerr effect in thin-film antiferromagnets at wavelengths that are seemingly too long to resolve the spatial modulation of magnetism. We identify the wavelength scale above which the Kerr effect is suppressed. Our theory is particularly relevant to materials like MnBi(2)Te(4), a topological antiferromagnet whose magneto-electric response is shown here to be dominated by the axion contribution even at optical frequencies. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9734152/ /pubmed/36494356 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35248-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Ahn, Junyeong
Xu, Su-Yang
Vishwanath, Ashvin
Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
title Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
title_full Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
title_fullStr Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
title_full_unstemmed Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
title_short Theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the Kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
title_sort theory of optical axion electrodynamics and application to the kerr effect in topological antiferromagnets
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9734152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36494356
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35248-8
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