Magnetophononics, the modulation of magnetic interactions by driven infrared-active lattice excitations, is emerging as a key mechanism for the ultrafast dynamical control of both semiclassical and quantum spin systems by coherent light. We demonstrate that, in a quantum magnetic material with strong spin-phonon coupling, resonances between the driven phonon and the spin excitation frequencies exhibit a giant self-blocking effect. Instead of absorbing more energy, the spin system acts as a strong brake on the driven phonon, causing it to absorb only a tiny fraction of the power available from the laser. Using the quantum master equations governing the nonequilibrium steady states of the coupled spin-lattice system, we show how self-blocking dominates the dynamics, demonstrate the creation of mutually repelling hybrid spin-phonon states, and control the nonequilibrium renormalization of the lattice-driven spin excitation band.
@article{arxiv.2112.04508,
title = {Giant Resonant Self-Blocking in Magnetophononically Driven Quantum Magnets},
author = {M. Yarmohammadi and M. Krebs and G. S. Uhrig and B. Normand},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.04508},
year = {2023}
}