Magnonic Einstein–de Haas Effect: Ultrafast Rotation of Magnonic Microspheres

Magnons, collective spin excitations in magnetic crystals, have attracted much interest due to their ability to couple strongly to microwaves and other quantum systems. In compact magnetic crystals, we show that there are magnonic modes that can support orbital angular momentum and that these modes can be driven by linearly polarized microwave fields. Because of conservation of angular momentum, exciting such magnon modes induces a mechanical torque on the crystal. We study a levitated magnetic crystal, a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) microsphere, where such orbital angular momentum magnon modes are driven by microwaves held in a microwave high-Q microwave cavity. We find that the YIG sphere experiences a mechanical torque and can be spun up to ultralarge angular speeds exceeding 10 GHz.