We study azimuthal spin-wave (SW) excitations in a circular ferromagnetic nanodot in different inhomogeneous, topologically nontrivial magnetization states, specifically, vortex, Bloch-type skyrmion, and Néel-type skyrmion states. A continuous transition between these states is realized by gradually changing the out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange interaction (DMI), and the corresponding SW spectra are calculated for each state. We observe the lifting of degeneracy of SW mode frequencies and a change in the systematics of frequency levels. The latter effect is induced by the geometric Berry phase, which occurs in SWs localized at the edge of the dot in the vortex state, and vanishes in the skyrmion states. Furthermore, channeling of edge-localized azimuthal SWs and a related large frequency splitting are observed in the skyrmion states. This is attributed to DMI-induced nonreciprocity, while the coupling of the breathing and gyrotropic modes is related to the skyrmion motion. Finally, we demonstrate efficient coupling of the dynamic magnetization to a uniform magnetic field in nanodots of noncircular symmetry in the skyrmion states.

• Received 21 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.064418