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Lost magnetism pinned on atomic rotations

Crystal-lattice vibrations reveal the mechanism by which laser pulses can strip a metal of its magnetism. The vibrations absorb the angular momentum of electrons in a sample, allowing it to demagnetize.
  1. Georg Woltersdorf

    1. Georg Woltersdorf is at the Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle–Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany.

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More than two decades ago, physicists noticed a curious thing about thin magnetic films of nickel: their magnetization was reduced almost immediately when the metal was hit with extremely short, intense pulses of light1. In general, materials are magnetic when the intrinsic angular momentum (or spin) of each electron aligns parallel to that of its neighbours. Because electrons carry an electric charge, this angular momentum gives rise to a magnetic moment similar to the one that arises when an electric current flows through a wire loop. So when the nickel demagnetized rapidly, researchers were understandably puzzled about what happened to the angular momentum. Writing in Nature, Tauchert et al.2 have found the answer to this long-standing question, showing that the vibrational modes of nickel’s crystal lattice carry a large fraction of the lost angular momentum.

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Nature 602, 36-38 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00189-1

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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