Generation of twisted magnons via spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion

Abstract: Twisted magnons (TMs) carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have attracted much attention from the magnonic community. The fabrication of such novel magnon state however is still challenging. Here we present a simple method to generate TMs with arbitrary radial and azimuthal quantum numbers through the spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion. The conversion rate from plane-wave magnons to twisted ones is shown to be insensitive to the quantum index. The spectrum of TMs in thin nanodisks is solved analytically, showing a good agreement with micromagnetic simulations. Moreover, we numerically study the propagation of TMs in magnetic nanodisk arrays and obtain the quantitative dependence of the decay length on quantum indexes. Our results are helpful for realizing TMs with large OAMs that are indispensable for future high-capacity magnonic communications and computings.