Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Polaritons are widely investigated quasiparticles with fundamental and technological significance due to their unique properties. They have been studied most extensively in semiconductors when photons interact with various elementary excitations. However, other strongly coupled excitations demonstrate similar dynamics. Specifically, when magnon and phonon modes are coupled, a hybridized magnon-phonon quasiparticle can form. Here, we report on the direct observation of coupled magnon-phonon dynamics within a single thin nickel nanomagnet. We develop an analytic description to model the dynamics in two dimensions, enabling us to isolate the parameters influencing the frequency splitting. Furthermore, we demonstrate tuning of the magnon-phonon interaction into the strong coupling regime via the orientation of the applied magnetic field.