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Phonon-driven tuning of exchange interactions in Y3Fe5O12

Kunihiko Yamauchi and Tamio Oguchi

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 125122 – Published 21 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3b2w-s2cx

Abstract

Yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12) is a prototypical ferrimagnetic insulator widely used in spin-wave and magnonic devices owing to its extremely low magnetic damping and long magnon propagation length, and recent experiments suggest that lattice vibrations can influence magnetic properties, motivating a microscopic understanding of how phonons modify exchange interactions. In this work, phonon-driven tuning of exchange interactions in Y3Fe5O12 is investigated from a mode-resolved perspective based on first-principles calculations. We focus on how optical phonons modify the dominant superexchange pathways and how lattice distortions affect the Fe-O-Fe bond geometry that governs the exchange interaction. To this end, phonon modes are computed from density functional theory, and the exchange interactions are evaluated from a Wannier-based tight-binding model and mapped onto a spin Hamiltonian, while displaced structures along individual infrared-active modes are used to quantify their impact on the magnetic interactions.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 125122– Published 21 August, 2026
  • Received 6 April 2026
  • Revised 7 July 2026
  • Accepted 3 August 2026
Article part of CHORUS
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