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Ultrafast nonthermal photo-magnetic recording in a transparent medium

Nature 542, 71–74 (02 February 2017) | Download Citation

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Abstract

Discovering ways to control the magnetic state of media with the lowest possible production of heat and at the fastest possible speeds is important in the study of fundamental magnetism1,2,3,4,5, with clear practical potential. In metals, it is possible to switch the magnetization between two stable states (and thus to record magnetic bits) using femtosecond circularly polarized laser pulses6,7,8. However, the switching mechanisms in these materials are directly related to laser-induced heating close to the Curie temperature9,10,11,12. Although several possible routes for achieving all-optical switching in magnetic dielectrics have been discussed13,14, no recording has hitherto been demonstrated. Here we describe ultrafast all-optical photo-magnetic recording in transparent films of the dielectric cobalt-substituted garnet. A single linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulse resonantly pumps specific d−d transitions in the cobalt ions, breaking the degeneracy between metastable magnetic states. By changing the polarization of the laser pulse, we deterministically steer the net magnetization in the garnet, thus writing ‘0’ and ‘1’ magnetic bits at will. This mechanism outperforms existing alternatives in terms of the speed of the write–read magnetic recording event (less than 20 picoseconds) and the unprecedentedly low heat load (less than 6 joules per cubic centimetre).

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the National Science Centre Poland (grant DEC-2013/09/B/ST3/02669), the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 257280 (Femtomagnetism) and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter. We thank A. Chizhik and A. M. Kalashnikova for discussions, S. Semin for technical assistance as well as A. Maziewski and Th. Rasing for continuous support.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Magnetism, Faculty of Physics, University of Bialystok, 1L Ciolkowskiego, 15-245 Bialystok, Poland

    • A. Stupakiewicz
    •  & K. Szerenos

  2. Radboud University, Institute for Molecules and Materials, 135 Heyendaalseweg, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    • D. Afanasiev
    • , A. Kirilyuk
    •  & A. V. Kimel

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Contributions

A.S. conceived the project with contributions from A.K. and A.V.K. The imaging and time-resolved magnetization precession were performed by K.S. D.A. developed femtosecond single-shot imaging and performed time-resolved imaging together with K.S. A.S. and A.V.K. co-wrote the manuscript with contributions from A.K., K.S. and D.A. The project was coordinated by A.S.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to A. Stupakiewicz or A. V. Kimel.

Extended data

Extended data figures

  1. 1.

    Spectral dependence of the absorption coefficient of YIG:Co film.

  2. 2.

    Schematics of the time-resolved magnetization dynamics and single shot imaging.

  3. 3.

    Time-resolved magnetization precession induced by the femtosecond pump pulses in YIG:Co film.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20807

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