Introduction to Spin Waves

A spin wave is a collective excitation of the electron spin system in a magnetic solid. In this video, the introduction to spin waves is given. To explain this fascinating phenomenon, we start with the description of the simplest harmonic oscillation, recall mechanical precession and explain what the magnetisation precession is. The mini-lecture finishes with a brief example of a real experimental study of spin-wave physics. Content of the lecture: 0:00 Intro 1:06 Harmonic oscillator 09:10 Mechanical precession 15:55 Magnetisation precession and Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation 23:44 Spin waves and magnons 28:28 Dispersion curves of electromagnetic and spin waves 38:15 Coupled oscillators 40:38 Real experiment - spin-wave directional coupler