Abstract
Frequency combs have high time–frequency accuracy, which makes them useful for applications in precision spectroscopy, ultra-sensitive detection and atomic clocks. Traditional methods of creating frequency combs hinge on material nonlinearities, which are often weak. These methods require high power densities to surpass their initiation thresholds, subsequently limiting their potential use. Here we demonstrate a nonlinear coupling process that efficiently generates magnonic frequency combs by exploiting exceptional points in a coupled system of two different magnon modes. Our approach is a simple and optimal path to produce magnonic frequency combs at low pump power with excellent tunability of exceptional points.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10807440 (ref. 48). Source data are provided with this paper.
Code availability
The MATLAB codes for drawing figures in this work are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been funded by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; Grant No. XDB0580000 to B.M.Y.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; Grant No. 12204306 to J.W.R. and Grant No. 12122413 to B.M.Y.), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (Grant No. 2020247 to B.M.Y.), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM; Grant Nos. 21JC1406200, 23JC1404100 and 22JC1403300 to B.M.Y.), the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (SITP) Independent Foundation (B.M.Y.), the Shanghai Pujiang Program (Grant No. 22PJ1410700 to J.W.R.), the Qilu Young Scholar Program of Shandong University (J.W.R.), the NSFC (Grant Nos. 12227901 and 11991063 to W.L.), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFA1405200 to Y.P.W.), the NSFC (Grant Nos. 92265202 and 12174329 to Y.P.W. and Grant Nos. 0214012051 and 12374109 to T.Y.), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFA1406600 to T.Y.), startup grants from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Grant Nos. 3004012185 and 3004012198 to T.Y.), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFA1404600 to L.X.S.) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS (Grant No. XDB43010200 to L.X.S.).
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J.W.R. and B.M.Y. conceived this study and designed the experimental set-up. C.Y.W., J.W.R. and B.M.Y. performed the measurements and data analysis. J.W.R. built the theoretical model and wrote the supplementary document. J.W.R., B.M.Y., C.Y.W., T.Y., Y.P.W., L.X.S., Z.J.C., K.X.Z. and W.L. together contributed to the writing of the paper. W.L. supervised this work.
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Nature Physics thanks Peng Yan and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figs. 1–10, Discussion and Tables 1 and 2.
Supplementary Video 1
Right-handed polarization of the microwave field at the cross centre, when the phase difference between the two pump signals was −90°.
Supplementary Video 2
Linear polarization of the microwave field at the cross centre, when the phase difference between the two pump signals was 0°.
Supplementary Video 3
Left-handed polarization of the microwave field at the cross centre, when the phase difference between the two pump signals was 90°.
Source data
Source Data Fig. 2
Measured transmission, coupling strength and calculation results at different polarizations.
Source Data Fig. 4
Measured radiation spectra and theoretical calculations of MFCs.
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Wang, C., Rao, J., Chen, Z. et al. Enhancement of magnonic frequency combs by exceptional points. Nat. Phys. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02478-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02478-0