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Coherent terahertz control of antiferromagnetic spin waves

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 31–34 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultrafast charge and spin excitations in the elusive terahertz regime1,2 of the electromagnetic spectrum play a pivotal role in condensed matter3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. The electric field of free-space terahertz pulses has provided a direct gateway to manipulating the motion of charges on the femtosecond timescale6,7,8,9. Here, we complement this process by showing that the magnetic component of intense terahertz transients enables ultrafast control of the spin degree of freedom. Single-cycle terahertz pulses switch on and off coherent spin waves in antiferromagnetic NiO at frequencies as high as 1 THz. An optical probe pulse with a duration of 8 fs follows the terahertz-induced magnetic dynamics directly in the time domain and verifies that the terahertz field addresses spins selectively by means of the Zeeman interaction. This concept provides a universal ultrafast means to control previously inaccessible magnetic excitations in the electronic ground state.

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Figure 1: The experiment.
Figure 2: Femtosecond terahertz spin resonance.
Figure 3: Coherent terahertz control of spin waves.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. Kuipers and U. Novak for helpful discussions. Support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) via Emmy Noether grant HU1598/1-1 and SFB767 is gratefully acknowledged.

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Author notes

  1. Rupert Huber

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physics, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany,

  2. Tobias Kampfrath and Alexander Sell: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Center for Applied Photonics, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, Konstanz, 78464, Germany

    Tobias Kampfrath, Alexander Sell, Gregor Klatt, Alexej Pashkin, Sebastian Mährlein, Thomas Dekorsy, Alfred Leitenstorfer & Rupert Huber

  2. Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Tobias Kampfrath & Martin Wolf

  3. FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), Science Park 104, Amsterdam, 1098 XG, The Netherlands

    Tobias Kampfrath

  4. Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Nußallee 14-16, Bonn, 53115, Germany

    Manfred Fiebig

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Contributions

T.K., A.S., R.H. and A.L. designed the experiment. Measurements were performed by T.K., A.S., R.H. and A.P. A.S., T.K. and R.H. analysed and modelled the data. M.F. prepared the sample, which was characterized by G.K., S.M. and T.D. T.K., R.H., A.S., A.L., M.W. and M.F. co-wrote the paper. All authors contributed to discussions.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tobias Kampfrath or Rupert Huber.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kampfrath, T., Sell, A., Klatt, G. et al. Coherent terahertz control of antiferromagnetic spin waves. Nature Photon 5, 31–34 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.259

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