Entropy production rate and correlations in a cavity magnomechanical system

Abstract

We present the irreversibility generated by a stationary cavity magnomechanical system composed of a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere with a diameter of a few hundred micrometers inside a microwave cavity. In this system, the magnons, i.e., collective spin excitations in the sphere, are coupled to the cavity photon mode via magnetic dipole interaction and to the phonon mode via magnetostrictive force (optomechanical-like). We employ the quantum phase-space formulation of the entropy change to evaluate the steady-state entropy production rate and associated quantum correlation in the system. We find that the behavior of the entropy flow between the cavity photon mode and the phonon mode is determined by the magnon-photon coupling and the cavity photon dissipation rate. Interestingly, the entropy production rate can increase/decrease depending on the strength of the magnon-photon coupling and the detuning parameters. We further show that the amount of correlations between the magnon and phonon modes is linked to the irreversibility generated in the system for small magnon-photon coupling. Our results demonstrate the possibility of exploring irreversibility in driven magnon-based hybrid quantum systems and open a promising route for quantum thermal applications. Published by the American Physical Society 2024