Electromagnon resonance in a collinear spin state of the polar antiferromagnet Fe2Mo3O8

Magnetic excitations are investigated for a hexagonal polar magnet Fe2Mo3O8 by terahertz spectroscopy. We observed magnon modes including an electric-field active magnon, electromagnon, in the collinear antiferromagnetic phase with spins parallel to the c axis. We unravel the nature of these excitations by investigating the correlation between the evolution of the mode profile and the magnetic transition from antiferromagnetic to ferrimagnetic order induced by magnetic field or Zn-doping. We propose that the observed electromagnon mode involves the collective precession of the spins with oscillating in-plane electric polarization through the mechanism of the linear magnetoelectric effect.