Optical-helicity-driven magnetization dynamics in metallic ferromagnets
Open accessAbstract
Recent observations of switching of magnetic domains in ferromagnetic metals by circularly polarized light, so-called all-optical helicity dependent switching, has renewed interest in the physics that governs the interactions between the angular momentum of photons and the magnetic order parameter of materials. Here we use time-resolved-vectorial measurements of magnetization dynamics of thin layers of Fe, Ni and Co driven by picosecond duration pulses of circularly polarized light. We decompose the torques that drive the magnetization into field-like and spin-transfer components that we attribute to the inverse Faraday effect and optical spin-transfer torque, respectively. The inverse Faraday effect is approximately the same in Fe, Ni and Co, but the optical spin-transfer torque is strongly enhanced by adding a Pt capping layer. Our work provides quantitative data for testing theories of light–material interactions in metallic ferromagnets and multilayers.
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When a circularly polarized optical pulse impinges on an FM sample, the spin-orbit interaction can yield a pump-induced torque on the spin system, whose orientation depends on the relative orientation of the material magnetization and the optically-induced effective magnetic field arising from inverse Faraday and optical spin-transfer effects.
“When a circularly polarized optical pulse impinges on an FM sample, the spin-orbit interaction can yield a pump-induced torque on the spin system (Fig. 6a). The orientation of this torque depends on the relative orientation of the magnetization of the material and the optically-induced effective magnetic field, which can arise from inverse Faraday and optical spin-transfer effects135,136.”
From Ultrafast terahertz emission from emerging symmetry-broken materials (2023) · cites this paper as [135]
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Ultrafast terahertz emission from emerging symmetry-broken materials
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- Authors
- Choi, G.-M., Schleife, A., & Cahill, D. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Corresponding author
- Choi, Gyung-Min
- Cahill, David G.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2017-04-18
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 15085-15085
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5399298
- OpenAlex
- W2606452388
- Cited by
- 107
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 5.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Korea University
- Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (CAP-16-01-KIST)
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology (2E26380)
- Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (W911NF-14-1-0016)
- Army Research Office (W911NF‐14‐1‐0016, W911NF-14-1, MURI W911NF-14-1-0016, W911NF)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Magnetic properties of thin films
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Condensed Matter Physics › Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Keywords
- circularly polarized light, inverse Faraday effect, field-like torque, spin-transfer torque, ferromagnetic metals, FeS, Ni, CO, light-matter interaction, multilayer structures
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