Temporal and spectral fingerprints of ultrafast all-coherent spin switching
Open accessAbstract
Future information technology demands ever-faster, low-loss quantum control. Intense light fields have facilitated milestones along this way, including the induction of novel states of matter 1-3, ballistic acceleration of electrons 4-7 and coherent flipping of the valley pseudospin 8. These dynamics leave unique 'fingerprints', such as characteristic bandgaps or high-order harmonic radiation. The fastest and least dissipative way of switching the technologically most important quantum attribute-the spin-between two states separated by a potential barrier is to trigger an all-coherent precession. Experimental and theoretical studies with picosecond electric and magnetic fields have suggested this possibility 9-11, yet observing the actual spin dynamics has remained out of reach. Here we show that terahertz electromagnetic pulses allow coherent steering of spins over a potential barrier, and we report the corresponding temporal and spectral fingerprints. This goal is achieved by coupling spins in antiferromagnetic TmFeO 3 (thulium orthoferrite) with the locally enhanced terahertz electric field of custom-tailored antennas. Within their duration of one picosecond, the intense terahertz pulses abruptly change the magnetic anisotropy and trigger a large-amplitude ballistic spin motion. A characteristic phase flip, an asymmetric splitting of the collective spin resonance and a long-lived offset of the Faraday signal are hallmarks of coherent spin switching into adjacent potential minima, in agreement with numerical simulations. The switchable states can be selected by an external magnetic bias. The low dissipation and the antenna's subwavelength spatial definition could facilitate scalable spin devices operating at terahertz rates.
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This is about one order of magnitude faster than the fastest spin switching reported to date.
“This is about one order of magnitude faster than the fastest spin switching reported to date44.”
From Terahertz electric-field-driven dynamical multiferroicity in SrTiO3 (2024) · cites this paper as [44]
The spin-dynamics discussion (p. 5) reports spins crossing the potential barrier at 3.4 ps, providing a switching-time benchmark. Our copy does not establish that this was the fastest switching reported to date, and it cannot substantiate the claimed order-of-magnitude comparison with the citing paper’s result. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Schlauderer, S., Lange, C., Baierl, S., Ebnet, T., Schmid, C. P., Valovcin, D. C., Zvezdin, A. K., Kimel, A. V., Mikhaylovskiy, R. V., & Huber, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Regensburg (DE)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Lange, C.
- Mikhaylovskiy, R. V.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2019-05
- Volume
- 569
- Issue
- 7756
- Pages
- 383-387
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2946284589
- Cited by
- 248
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 12.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (acceptedVersion)
- University of Regensburg Publication Server (University of Regensburg) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HU 1598/2, SFB 1277)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (680-47-626)
- FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (305003, 339813)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Magnetic properties of thin films
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Condensed Matter Physics › Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum and electron transport phenomena
- Keywords
- terahertz pulses, TmFeO3, antiferromagnetism, magnetic anisotropy, spin precession, Faraday rotation, spintronic devices, low dissipation
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