CoPS3 stands out in the family of the van der Waals antiferromagnets XPS3 (X=Mn, Ni, Fe, Co) due to the unquenched orbital momentum of the magnetic Co2+ ions which is known to facilitate the coupling of spins to both electromagnetic waves and lattice vibrations. Here, using a time-resolved magneto-optical pump-probe technique we experimentally study the ultrafast laser-induced dynamics of mutually correlated spins and lattice. It is shown that a femtosecond laser pulse acts as an ultrafast heater and thus results in the melting of the antiferromagnetic order. At the same time, the resonant pumping of the 4T1g - 4T2g electronic transition in Co2+ ions effectively changes their orbital momentum, giving rise to a mechanical force that moves the ions in the direction parallel to the orientation of their spins, thus generating a coherent Bg phonon mode at the frequency of about 4.7 THz.
@article{arxiv.2302.12104,
title = {Ultrafast laser-induced spin-lattice dynamics in the van der Waals antiferromagnet CoPS3},
author = {D. Khusyainov and T. Gareev and V. Radovskaia and K. Sampathkumar and S. Acharya and M. Šiškins and S. Mañas-Valero and B. A. Ivanov and E. Coronado and Th. Rasing and A. V. Kimel and D. Afanasiev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.12104},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
The following article has been submitted to APL Materials as a contribution to a special issue "Emerging Materials in Antiferromagnetic Spintronics"