Manipulation of magnetic systems by quantized surface acoustic waves via the piezomagnetic effect

Quantized surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in piezoelectric media have been studied recently, and they can be used to control the electric dipoles of quantum systems via the electric field produced through the piezoelectric effect. However, it is not easy nor convenient to manipulate magnetic moments directly by an electric field. Here we study a quantum theory of SAWs in a piezomagnetic medium. We show that the intrinsic properties of the piezomagnetic medium enable the SAW in the piezomagnetic medium to interact directly with magnetic moments of quantum systems via the magnetic field induced by the piezomagnetic effect. By taking a strip SAW waveguide made of a piezomagnetic medium as an example, we further study the coupling strengths between different magnetic quantum systems with magnetic moments and the quantized single-mode SAW in the waveguide. Based on this, we discuss the interaction between magnetic quantum systems mediated by a quantized multimode SAW in a piezomagnetic waveguide. Our study provides a convenient way to directly control magnetic quantum systems by quantized SAWs, and offers potential applications to on-chip information processing based on solid-state quantum systems via quantized acoustic waves.