Discretized dynamics of exchange spin wave bulk and edge modes in honeycomb nanoribbons with armchair edge boundaries

Abstract

We develop a field theory to study the dynamics of long wavelength exchange spin wave excitations on honeycomb nanoribbons characterized by armchair edge boundaries and the N\'eel antiferromagnetic ordering state. Appropriate boundary conditions are established by requiring that the bulk and edge spins precess with the same frequency for any given spin wave eigenmode in these systems. A set of characteristic boundary equations, common for bulk and edge spin wave modes, are hence derived. The equations of motion for the spin dynamics are then solved to determine the propagating and evanescent exchange spin wave modes. We prove in general that the bulk spin wave dynamics is discretized due to the finite width of the nanoribbon. For an isotropic magnetic nanoribbon, the Dirac cone is reduced to a single linear dispersion curve due to this discretization. The number and wavelengths of allowed bulk modes for isotropic and anisotropic nanoribbons are determined from the derived characteristic boundary equations. As witnessed by our numerical results for different examples it is shown that the characteristics of these modes depend on the width of the nanoribbon and its antiferromagnetic anisotropy. Further, anisotropic nanoribbons, even those with the slightest anisotropy, present evanescent modes with non-linear dispersion relations. The spatial variation of the amplitudes of the evanescent exchange spin waves across the finite widths of the nanoribbons, is found to be strongly dependent on the system magnetic anisotropy and its width. The developed theoretical approach is general and can be applied for nanoribbons with all types of boundary edges.