Related papers: Vectorial Control of Magnetization by Light
Optical absorption of circularly polarized light is well known to yield an electron spin polarization in direct band gap semiconductors. We demonstrate that electron spins can even be generated with high efficiency by absorption of linearly…
We explore the effects of ultrafast shaped pulses for two-level systems that do not have a single photon resonance by developing a multiphoton density-matrix approach. We take advantage of the fact that the dynamics of the intermediate…
Scattering often limits the controlled delivery of light in applications such as biomedical imaging, optogenetics, optical trapping, and fiber-optic communication or imaging. Such scattering can be controlled by appropriately shaping the…
For nearly 90 years, precession and relaxation processes have been thought to dominate magnetization dynamics. Only recently has it been considered that, on short time scales, an inertia-driven magnetization dynamics should become relevant,…
We predict theoretically and demonstrate experimentally an ellipticity-dependent nonlinear magneto-optic rotation of elliptically-polarized light propagating in a coherent atomic medium. We show that this effect results from a hexadecapole…
By using intense coherent electromagnetic radiation, it may be possible to manipulate the properties of quantum materials very quickly, or even induce new and potentially useful phases that are absent in equilibrium. For instance, ultrafast…
A momentum conservation approach is introduced to manipulate light at distance using metasurfaces. Given a specified field existing on one side of the metasurface and specified desired field transmitted from the opposite side, a general…
We present a study of photo-excited magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As films observed by time-resolved magneto-optical measurements. The magnetization precession triggered by linearly polarized optical pulses in the absence…
Control of the phase and polarization states of light is an important goal for nearly all optical research. The development of an efficient optical component that allows the simultaneous manipulation of the polarization and phase…
Optical trapping can be used to manipulate the three-dimensional (3-D) motion of spherical particles based on the simple prediction of optical forces and the responding motion of samples. However, controlling the 3-D behaviour of…
Controlled charge flows are fundamental to many areas of science and technology, serving as carriers of energy and information, as probes of material properties and dynamics, and as a means of revealing or even inducing broken symmetries.…
The underlying symmetry of the crystal, electronic structure, and magnetic structure manifests itself in the anisotropy of materials' properties, which is a central topic of the present condensed matter research. However, it demands such a…
The idea to utilize not only the charge but also the spin of electrons in the operation of electronic devices has led to the development of spintronics, causing a revolution in how information is stored and processed. A novel advancement…
Dynamical control of the nonlinear optical properties of solids -- with light itself -- will be essential for future ultrafast photonic technologies. Previously, methods to modulate nonlinear processes including second-harmonic generation…
Laser induced ultrafast demagnetization is the process whereby the magnetic moment of a ferromagnetic material is seen to drop significantly on a timescale of $10-100$s of femtoseconds due to the application of a strong laser pulse. If this…
Materials of which the optical response is determined by their structure are of much interest both for their fundamental properties and applications. Examples range from simple gratings to photonic crystals. Obtaining control over the…
The possibility of controlling spins using ultrashort light and strain pulses has triggered intense discussions about the mechanisms responsible for magnetic re-ordering. All-optical magnetisation switching can be achieved through ultrafast…
Designing material properties on demand has important implications to potential future technological applications. While theoretically it is always possible to tune various intrinsic energy scales, there are fundamental limitations to this…
We study the interaction of a weak probe field, having two orthogonally polarized components, with an optically dense medium of four-level atoms in a tripod configuration. In the presence of a coherent driving laser, electromagnetically…
The ability to spatially separate the electric and magnetic fields of a light beam enables the inspection of laser-matter interactions driven solely by optical magnetic fields. However, magnetic field excitations are commonly orders of…