Reconfigurable heat-induced spin wave lenses

We study the control and manipulation of propagating spin waves in yttrium iron garnet films using a local laser-induced heating. We show that, due to the refraction of spin waves in the thermal gradients, the heated region acts as a defocusing lens for Damon-Eshbach spin waves and as a focusing lens for backward volume waves enabling collimation of spin-wave beams in the latter case. In addition to the focusing/defocusing functionality, the local heating allows one to manipulate the propagation direction of the spin-wave beams and to efficiently suppress their diffraction spreading by utilizing caustic effects.