Combined Brillouin light scattering and microwave absorption study of magnon-photon coupling in a split-ring resonator/YIG film system

Abstract

Microfocused Brillouin light scattering (BLS) and microwave absorption (MA) are used to study magnon-photon coupling in a system consisting of a split-ring microwave resonator and a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film. The split-ring resonantor is defined by optical lithography and loaded with a 1 $\mu$m-thick YIG film grown by liquid phase epitaxy. BLS and MA spectra of the hybrid system are simultaneously recorded as a function of the applied magnetic field magnitude and microwave excitation frequency. Strong coupling of the magnon and photon modes is found with a coupling strength of $g_\text{eff}/2 \pi = 63$ MHz. The combined BLS and MA data allows to study the continuous transition of the hybridized modes from a purely magnonic to a purely photonic mode by varying the applied magnetic field and microwave frequency. Furthermore, the BLS data represent an up-conversion of the microwave frequency coupling to optical frequencies.