Magnon transport in quasi-two-dimensional van der Waals antiferromagnets*

The recent emergence of 2D van der Waals magnets down to atomic layer thickness provides an exciting platform for exploring quantum magnetism and spintronics applications. However, the potential of 2D van der Waals magnets for magnonics, has not been explored yet. In this talk, we will present the experimental observation of long distance magnon transport over several micrometers in quasi-2D van der Waals antiferromagnet MnPS₃. Experimentally, we exfoliated mechanically MnPS₃ flakes down to a few nanometers, and then fabricated the devices of non-local geometry where MnPS₃ is the transport channel of magnon. Then magnon is injected via thermal method and detected based on inverse spin Hall effect of platinum. As the quasi-2D MnPS₃ thickness decreases, a shorter magnon diffusion length is observed, which could be attributed to the surface-impurity-induced magnon scattering.