We report an all-optical time-domain detection of picosecond magnetization dynamics of arrays of 50 nm Ni80Fe20 (permalloy) dots down to the single nanodot regime. In the single nanodot regime the dynamics reveals one dominant resonant mode corresponding to the edge mode of the 50 nm dot with slightly higher damping than that of the unpatterned thin film. With the increase in areal density of the array both the precession frequency and damping increases significantly due to the increase in magnetostatic interactions between the nanodots and a mode splitting and sudden jump in apparent damping are observed at an edge-to-edge separation of 50 nm.
Using femtosecond optical pulses, we have investigated the ultrafast magnetization dynamics induced in a dielectric film of bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi-YIG) buried below a thick Cu/Pt metallic bilayer. We show that exciting the sample from Pt surface launches an acoustic strain pulse propagating into the garnet film. We discovered that this strain pulse induces a coherent magnetization precession in the Bi-YIG at the frequency of the ferromagnetic resonance. The observed phenomena can be explain by strain-induced changes of magnetocristalline anisotropy via the inverse magnetos…
Detailed understanding of spin dynamics in magnetic nanomaterials is necessary for developing ultrafast, low-energy and high-density spintronic logic and memory. Here, we develop micromagnetic models and analytical solutions to elucidate the effect of increasing damping and uniaxial anisotropy on magnetic field pulse-assisted switching time, energy and field requirements of nanowires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and yttrium iron garnet-like spin transport properties. A nanowire is initially magnetized using an external magnetic field pulse (write) and self-relaxation. Next, magnetic …
Spintronics provides an efficient platform for realizing non-volatile memory and logic devices. In these systems, data is stored in the magnetization of magnetic materials, and magnetization is switched in the writing process. In conventional spintronic devices, ferromagnetic materials are used which have a magnetization dynamics timescale of around the nanoseconds, setting a limit for the switching speed. Increasing the magnetization switching speed has been one of the challenges in spintronic research. In this work we take advantage of the ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferrimagnetic ma…
The field of spintronics involves the study of both spin and charge transport in solid state devices with a view toward increasing their functionality and efficiency. Alternatively, the field of ultrafast magnetism focuses on the use of femtosecond laser pulses to excite electrons in magnetic materials, which allows the magnetic order to be dramatically changed on unprecedented sub-picosecond time-scales. Here, we unite these two distinct research activities by using picosecond electrical pulses to rapidly excite electrons in a magnetic metal. We are able to deterministically and repetitively …
Reducing energy dissipation while increasing speed in computation and memory is a long-standing challenge for spintronics research. In the last 20 years, femtosecond lasers have emerged as a tool to control the magnetization in specific magnetic materials at the picosecond timescale. However, the use of ultrafast optics in integrated circuits and memories would require a major paradigm shift. An ultrafast electrical control of the magnetization is far preferable for integrated systems. Here we demonstrate reliable and deterministic control of the out-of-plane magnetization of a 1 nm-thick Co l…
In a number of recent experiments, it has been shown that femtosecond laser pulses can control magnetization on picosecond timescales, which is at least an order of magnitude faster compared to conventional magnetization dynamics. Among these demonstrations, one material system (GdFeCo ferromagnetic films) is particularly interesting, as deterministic toggle-switching of the magnetic order has been achieved without the need of any symmetry breaking magnetic field. This phenomenon is often referred to as all optical switching (AOS). However, so far, GdFeCo remains the only material system where…
Control of magnetism without using magnetic fields enables large-scale integration of spintronic devices for memory, computation and communication in the beyond-CMOS era. Mechanisms including spin torque transfer, spin Hall effect, and electric field or strain assisted switching have been implemented to switch magnetization in various spintronic devices. Their operation speed, however, is fundamentally limited by the spin precession time to be longer than 10-100 picoseconds. Overcoming such a speed constraint is critical for the prospective development of spintronics. Here we report the demons…
We theoretically investigate the effects of atomic defect related short-range disorders and electron-electron interactions on Anderson type localization and the magnetic properties of hexagonal armchair graphene quantum dots using an extended mean-field Hubbard model. We observe that randomly distributed defects with concentrations between 1-5\% of the total number of atoms leads to localization alongside magnetic puddle-like structures. We show that localization lenght is not affected by magnetization if there is an even distribution of defects between the two sublattices of the honeycomb lat…
We analyze theoretically the effects of electron-phonon interaction in the dynamics of an electron that can be trapped to a localized state and detrapped to an extended band state of a small quantum dot (QD) using a simple model system. In spite of its simplicity the time dependent model has no analytical solution but a numerically exact one can be found producing a rich dynamics. The electronic motion is quasi-periodic in time, with oscillations around a mean value that are basic characteristics of the weak and strong coupling regimes of electron-phonon interaction and set the time scales of …
The magnetic field associated with a picosecond intense electron pulse is shown to switch locally the magnetization of extended films and nanostructures and to ignite locally spin waves excitations. Also, topologically protected magnetic textures such as skyrmions can be imprinted swiftly in a sample with a residual Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya spin-orbital coupling. Characteristics of the created excitations such as the topological charge or the width of the magnon spectrum can be steered via the duration and the strength of the electron pulses. The study points to a possible way for a spatiotempora…
A picosecond acoustic pulse can be used to control the lasing emission from semiconductor nanostructures by shifting their electronic transitions. When the active medium, here an ensemble of (In,Ga)As quantum dots, is shifted into or out of resonance with the cavity mode, a large enhancement or suppression of the lasing emission can dynamically be achieved. Most interesting, even in the case when gain medium and cavity mode are in resonance, we observe an enhancement of the lasing due to shaking by coherent phonons. In order to understand the interactions of the non-linearly coupled photon-exc…
Interactions, superconducting $T_c$, and fluctuation magnetization for two coupled dots in the crossover between the Gaussian Orthogonal and Unitary ensembles
Emergent Chaos-Like Dynamics of Spin-Orbit Torque-Driven Magnetic Transitions
Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy（马克斯·玻恩非线性光学和超短脉冲光谱研究所）；University of Augsburg（奥格斯堡大学）；Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie（柏林赫尔姆霍兹材料能源中心）；Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH)（费迪南德·布劳恩研究所）；Technische Universität Berlin（柏林工业大学）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron（德国电子同步辐射中心）
Changes in strain can be used to modify electronic and magnetic properties in crystal structures, to manipulate nanoparticles and cells, or to control chemical reactions. The magneto-elastic (ME) effect--the change of magnetic properties caused by the elastic deformation (strain) of a magnetic material--has been proposed as an alternative approach to magnetic fields for the low power control of magnetization states of nanoelements since it avoids charge currents, which entail ohmic losses. Multiferroic heterostructures \cite{Zheng2004} and nanocomposites have exploited this effect in search of…
Magnetic microscopy that combines nanoscale spatial resolution with picosecond scale temporal resolution uniquely enables direct observation of the spatiotemporal magnetic phenomena that are relevant to future high-speed, high-density magnetic storage and logic technologies. Magnetic microscopes that combine these metrics has been limited to facility-level instruments. To address this gap in lab-accessible spatiotemporal imaging, we develop a time-resolved near-field magnetic microscope based on magneto-thermal interactions. We demonstrate both magnetization and current density imaging modalit…
The precise simulation of the preparation, control, and readout of a single-hole spin is investigated via hierarchical equations of motion(HEOM) approach. By ionization of a resonantly excited electron-hole pair and tunneling the conduction level electrons into electrodes, a single-hole spin qubit is initialized. SU(2) control is achieved via the combination of Larmor procession of the hole spin in Voigt geometry magnetic field and rotation about the optical axis with a geometric phase induced by a picosecond laser pulse. Read-out of the qubit is implemented through photocurrent. We compared t…
Ultrafast single electron spin manipulation in 2D semiconductor quantum dots with optimally controlled time-dependent electric fields through spin-orbit coupling
Recently it has been shown that not only GdFeCo alloys exhibit single-pulse helicity-independent all-optical switching (HI-AOS), but that this effect is also seen in Co/Gd bilayers. However, there have been no reports on the explicit time dynamics of the switching process in these bilayers as of yet. Furthermore, time-resolved measurements of switching of other materials are typically done with a constant applied field to reset the magnetization between consecutive pulses and thus ensure repeatable behavior. In this paper we experimentally resolve the explicit dynamics of the switching process…
