How a nano-core shatters the collective of an entire vortex

Magnetic vortices are prominent examples for topology in magnetism with a rich set of dynamic properties. They exhibit an intricate magnon spectrum and show a special eigen-resonance of the vortex texture itself, the gyroscopic motion of the vortex core. While there has been studies about magnon assisted reversal of the vortex core polarity, the impact of the vortex core motion on the magnon spectrum wasn’t addressed so far. Both excitation types are clearly separated by one order of magnitude in their resonance frequencies, where magnons are in the lower GHz range and the vortex typically gyrates at a few hundred MHz. This clear separation allows for experiments studying the temporal evolution of the magnon spectrum when the motion of the vortex core is driven by an external stimulus. We present experimental and numerical studies on how the magnon eigenstates are transformed into Floquet bands, when the vortex ground state is periodically modulated intime by thegyroscopic motion of the vortex core. The existence of the Floquet bands is evidenced by the appearance of magnon frequency combs, where the comb spacing is determined by the frequency of the gyroscopic motion.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the programs KA 5069/3-1 and GL1041/1-1, and the EU Research and Innovation Programme Horizon Europe under grant agreement no. 101070290 (NIMFEIA).

References: [1] Christopher Heins, Lukas Körber, Joo-Von Kim, Thibaut Devolder, Johan H. Mentink, Attila Kákay, Jürgen Fassbender, Katrin Schultheiss, Helmut Schultheiss, Science 391, 190 (2026)

Dr. H. Schultheiss is a physicist and research group leader at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, where he has led the Emmy Noether Research Group Magnonics since 2014, and a TU Dresden Young Investigator since 2015. His research focuses on magnonics, spin-wave dynamics, and magnetic micro- and nanostructures. He earned his PhD in physics with distinction from Technische Universität Kaiserslautern and previously held a postdoctoral appointment at Argonne National Laboratory, USA. Dr. Schultheiss has authored more about a 100 peer-reviewed publications and 3 book chapters, and his work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Walther Schottky Award of the German Physical Society and the HZDR research award. He has also been active in the international research community through invited talks, conference organization, editorial work, and service as IEEE German Chapter Chair and Associate Editor of IEEE Magnetics Letters.