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Magnon-Cherenkov effect from a picosecond strain pulse

Nature Physics volume 22, pages 252–258 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cherenkov radiation is a universal phenomenon that arises from a uniformly moving source. It enables wave emission and finds important applications across various fields of physics, from particle physics to plasmonics. Efforts to explore the Cherenkov emission of coherent spin waves, or magnons, are currently limited by the absence of experimentally realized fast-moving magnetic perturbations. Here we demonstrate the magnon-Cherenkov effect by showing the emission of exchange spin waves. This emission is enabled by an optically induced picosecond strain pulse that acts as a spatially localized propagating perturbation of the internal effective magnetic field as a result of magnetoelastic coupling. We observe the propagation of a strain pulse through the thickness of a dielectric ferrimagnet, followed by the emission of spin waves that fully satisfy the conditions for the Cherenkov effect. The spectral characteristics of the emitted spin waves are controlled with an applied magnetic field and the shape of the strain pulse. Therefore, our results expand the possibilities to realize and control non-dissipative spin transport in various laterally and vertically structured magnonic devices.

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Fig. 1: Cherenkov emission of SWs from a propagating strain pulse.
Fig. 2: Time-resolved optical excitation of the strain pulse and detection of SWs.
Fig. 3: Magnetic field dependence of the excited magnetization dynamics.
Fig. 4: Micromagnetoelastic simulations of the Cherenkov emission of the SWs from the strain pulse.

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Data availability

All the experimental data from this work are available through figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28351496 (ref. 60). Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We thank I. A. Mogunov and M. X. Na for fruitful discussions, and L. A. Snigirev for help with sample characterization. The work of I.A.F., A.V.A. and A.M.K. was supported by RSF grant number 23-12-00251 (https://rscf.ru/project/23-12-00251/).

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Author notes

  1. Nikolai E. Khokhlov

    Present address: Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

    Iaroslav A. Filatov, Petr I. Gerevenkov, Andrei V. Azovtsev, Valeria A. Kovaleva, Nikolai E. Khokhlov & Alexandra M. Kalashnikova

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  1. Iaroslav A. Filatov
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Contributions

I.A.F.: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; investigation; methodology; resources; software; supervision; validation; visualization; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. P.I.G.: data curation; formal analysis; methodology; resources; software; validation; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. A.V.A.: data curation; formal analysis; investigation; methodology; software. V.A.K.: data curation; formal analysis; investigation. N.E.K.: conceptualization; methodology; project administration; supervision; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. A.M.K.: conceptualization; funding acquisition; methodology; project administration; resources; supervision; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Iaroslav A. Filatov.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Experimental time traces of 450 nm probe pulses polarization rotation under different Hext obtained when the pump is focused onto the Au/LuIG.

The left panel shows the enlarged area of the right one (dashed box).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Probe pulses sensitivity depending on the penetration depth.

a, Simulated time traces of the out-of-plane magnetization component Mz(t) obtained by spatial averaging with weights corresponding to the penetration profiles with different δpr. b, The FFT of the data from a.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 Micromagnetoelastic simulations of the Cherenkov emission of the SWs by the strain pulse with duration of 70 ps.

a, Spatial snapshot of the normalized out-of-plane magnetization component Mz at t = 141 ps after the strain pulse injection. Grey area corresponds to the intensity profile of 450 nm probe with penetration depth δpr = 75 nm. b, Time trace Mz(t) obtained by spatial averaging with weights corresponding to the probe penetration profile. c, The FFT amplitude spectrum of the time trace from b. d, Spatial snapshot of the mechanical displacement uz (dashed line) and \(\frac{\partial {\rm{u}}_{z}}{\partial z}\) corresponding to the strain εzz(z) (solid line) at t = 141 ps. Strain pulse duration is 70 ps. e, Dispersion characteristic of the simulated acoustic pulse, obtained by the two-dimensional FFT of the spatio-temporal evolution of uz(z, t). Grey solid line corresponds to the LA phonon dispersion with Vs = 6.55 km s−1. f, Dispersion characteristic of the simulated magnetization dynamics obtained by the two-dimensional FFT of the spatio-temporal evolution of Mz(z, t). Grey line corresponds to the LA phonon dispersion, and dark blue curve corresponds to the exchange SWs dispersion calculated with equation (3) in the main text. Note that the analytically calculated dispersion curves are shown only in the positive range of wavenumbers k for clarity. The external magnetic field is μ0Hext = 0.4 T.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Pump-probe experimental results obtained with probe pulses with central wavelength of 900 nm.

a, Time traces of probe polarization rotation when the pump is focused onto the Au/LuIG (blue line) and onto the LuIG (red line). b, The FFT of the data from a. c,d, Field dependencies of the FFT of the polarization rotation time traces when the pump is focused onto the LuIG and onto the Au/LuIG, respectively.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 5 Experimentally obtained spectra containing frequency combs.

Spectra are cross-sections of Fig. 3a in the main text at μ0Hext = 0.35, 0.45, 0.55 T. Dashed vertical arrows indicate frequencies separated by fr = 1.88 GHz.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 6 Dependence of the magnetization dynamics frequency on the azimuthal orientation of the external magnetic field.

The color map corresponds to the FFT of the time traces measured with the applied in-plane field μ0Hext = 415 mT. Dashed red line corresponds to the fit of the FMR frequency versus the in-plane orientation of the magnetic field, obtained using the Smit-Beljers approach. Dashed line represents the central prediction of the model using the best-fit parameters. Shaded band represents the uncertainty in the model’s prediction, propagated from a ± 5∘ in-plane field alignment error and a ± 10 mT field magnitude error.

Source data

Supplementary information

Supplementary Video 1 (download MP4 )

Cherenkov emission of SWs by a strain pulse with a total duration of 20 ps obtained from micromagnetoelastic simulations. The top and bottom panels illustrate the time evolution of the spatial distribution of the normalized out-of-plane magnetization component and mechanical displacement across the thickness of LuIG.

Supplementary Video 2 (download MP4 )

Cherenkov emission of SWs by a strain pulse with a total duration of 70 ps obtained from micromagnetoelastic simulations. The top and bottom panels illustrate the time evolution of the spatial distribution of the normalized out-of-plane magnetization component and mechanical displacement across the thickness of LuIG.

Source data

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Filatov, I.A., Gerevenkov, P.I., Azovtsev, A.V. et al. Magnon-Cherenkov effect from a picosecond strain pulse. Nat. Phys. 22, 252–258 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03137-8

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