Electrical generation and detection of spin waves in a quantum Hall ferromagnet.

Abstract

Spin waves are collective excitations of magnetic systems. An attractive setting for studying long-lived spin-wave physics is the quantum Hall (QH) ferromagnet, which forms spontaneously in clean two-dimensional electron systems at low temperature and in a perpendicular magnetic field. We used out-of-equilibrium occupation of QH edge channels in graphene to excite and detect spin waves in magnetically ordered QH states. Our experiments provide direct evidence for long-distance spin-wave propagation through different ferromagnetic phases in the <i>N</i> = 0 Landau level, as well as across the insulating canted antiferromagnetic phase. Our results will enable experimental investigation of the fundamental magnetic properties of these exotic two-dimensional electron systems.