Related papers: Ultrafast light-induced magnetization dynamics in …
All-optical pump-probe detection of magnetization precession has been performed for ferromagnetic EuO thin films at 10 K. We demonstrate that the circularly-polarized light can be used to control the magnetization precession on an ultrafast…
Ultrafast non-thermal manipulation of magnetization by light relies on either indirect coupling of the electric field component of the light with spins via spin-orbit interaction or direct coupling between the magnetic field component and…
Controlling ultrafast magnetization dynamics by a femtosecond laser is attracting interest both in fundamental science and industry because of the potential to achieve magnetic domain switching at ever advanced speed. Here we report…
We present a comprehensive experimental and numerical study of magnetization dynamics triggered in a thin metallic film by single-cycle terahertz pulses of $\sim20$ MV/m electric field amplitude and $\sim1$ ps duration. The experimental…
Understanding ultrafast magnetization dynamics on the microscopic level is of strong current interest due to the potential for applications in information storage. In recent years, the spin-lattice coupling has been recognized to be…
Coherent light-matter interactions have recently extended their applications to the ultrafast control of magnetization in solids. An important but unrealized technique is the manipulation of magnetization vector motion to make it follow an…
Damping effects form the core of many emerging concepts for high-speed spintronic applications. Important characteristics such as device switching times and magnetic domain-wall velocities depend critically on the damping rate. While the…
Coherent oscillations associated with spin precessions were observed in ultrafast optical experiments on ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As films. Using a complete theoretical description of the processes by which light couples to the magnetization,…
In a honeycomb-lattice spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator {\alpha}-RuCl3, an ultrafast magnetization is induced by circularly polarized excitation below the Mott gap. Photo-carriers play an important role, which are generated by turning…
We investigate the non-resonant all-optical switching of magnetization. We treat the inverse Faraday effect (IFE) theoretically in terms of the spin-selective optical Stark effect for linearly or circularly polarized light. In the dilute…
Directly modifying spin exchange energies in a magnetic material with light can enable ultrafast control of its magnetic states. Current approaches rely on tuning charge hopping amplitudes that mediate exchange by optically exciting either…
It is now well established that a laser pulse can demagnetize a ferromagnet. However, for a long time, it has not had an analytic theory because it falls into neither nonlinear optics (NLO) nor magnetism. Here we attempt to fill this gap by…
We study ultrafast magnetization quenching of ferromagnetic iron following excitation by an optical vs a terahertz pump pulse. While the optical pump (photon energy of 3.1 eV) induces a strongly nonthermal electron distribution, terahertz…
The stabilization of long-range magnetic order in nominally non-magnetic semi-conductors using femtosecond light pulses is an exciting yet experimentally challenging goal. Theoretical studies indicate that certain non-magnetic…
Time-dependent density functional theory is implemented in an all electron solid-state code for the case of fully non-collinear spins. We use this to study laser induced demagnetization in Fe, Co and Ni. It is shown that this…
The spin dynamics in Ni is studied by an exact diagonalization method on the ultrafast time scale. It is shown that the femtosecond relaxation of the magneto-optical response results from exchange interaction and spin-orbit coupling. Each…
Optical control of magnetism, of interest for high-speed data processing and storage, has only been demonstrated with near-infrared excitation to date. However, in absorbing materials, such high photon energies can lead to significant…
When a laser pulse excites a ferromagnet, its spin undergoes a dramatic change. The initial demagnetization process is very fast. Experimentally, it is found that the demagnetization time is related to the spin moment in the sample. In this…
Due to the lack of a net magnetic moment, antiferromagnets possess a unique robustness to external magnetic fields and are thus predicted to play an important role in future magnetic technologies. However, this robustness also makes them…
The rate and pathways of relaxation of a magnetic medium to its equilibrium following excitation with intense and short laser pulses are the key ingredients of ultrafast optical control of spins. Here we study experimentally the evolution…