Direct Optically Driven Spin-Charge Dynamics Govern the Femtosecond Response of Ferromagnets

Ferromagnetic materials have strong electron correlations that drive quantum effects and make the physics that describes them extremely challenging. In particular, the electron, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom can interact in surprising ways when driven out of equilibrium by ultrafast laser excitation. In this thesis I uncover several previously unexpected connections between the electronic and spin systems in ferromagnets. Dynamics occur at unexpectedly fast timescales, driven using femtosecond laser excitation pulses. The tools that I use to observe the exceeding fast (10s of femtosecond) dynamics are bursts of extreme ultraviolet light resonant with the M-edge of transition metals and produced via high harmonic generation. We combine time-resolved transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect and time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopies to show that the same critical behavior that governs the equilibrium magnetic phase transition in nickel also governs the ultrafast dynamics within 20 fs of laser excitation. When the electron temperature is transiently driven above the Curie temperature, we observe an extremely rapid change in the material response: the spin system absorbs sufficient energy within the first 20 fs to subsequently proceed through the phase transition, whereas demagnetization and the collapse of the exchange splitting occur on much longer, fluence- independent time scales of 176 fs. This observation defines a new timescale in the field of ultrafast ferromagnetism. The next question is then whether or not a response at this speed or faster can be directly observed in more complex materials. To investigate this I perform experiments on the half-metallic heusler compound Co2MnGe. Here a single infrared femtosecond laser pulse drives ultrafast transfer of spin polarization from one elemental sublattice to another within its pulse duration. I simultaneously probe the magnetic response of cobalt and manganese to make a surprising finding: the magnetization of Co is transiently enhanced, while that of Mn rapidly quenches. This marks the first direct manipulation of electron spins via light, providing a path to spintronic logic devices such as switches and triggers that operate on few femtosecond or even faster timescales.</p

Observation of a new light-induced skyrmion phase in the Mott insulator Cu2OSeO3

We report the discovery of a novel skyrmion phase in the multiferroic insulator Cu2OSeO3 for magnetic fields below the equilibrium skyrmion pocket. This phase can be accessed by exciting the sample out of equilibrium with near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond laser pulses but can not be reached by any conventional field cooling protocol. From the strong wavelength dependence of the photocreation process and via spin dynamics simulations, we identify the magnetoelastic effect as the most likely photocreation mechanism. This effect results in a transient modification of the magnetic interaction extending the equilibrium skyrmion pocket to lower magnetic fields. Once created, the skyrmions rearrange and remain stable over a long time, reaching minutes. The presented results are relevant for designing high-efficiency non-volatile data storage based on magnetic skyrmions.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Ultrafast domain dilation induced by optical pumping in ferromagnetic CoFe/Ni multilayers

Ultrafast optical pumping of systems with spatially nonuniform magnetic textures is known to cause far-from-equilibrium spin transport effects, such as the broadening of domain-walls. Here, we study the dynamics of labyrinth domain networks in ferromagnetic CoFe/Ni multilayers subject to a femtosecond optical pump and find an ultrafast domain dilation by 6% within 1.6 ps. This surprising result is based on the unambiguous determination of a harmonically-related shift of ultrafast magnetic X-ray diffraction for the first- and third-order rings. Domain dilation is plausible from conservation of momentum arguments, whereby inelastic scattering from a hot, quasi-ballistic, radial current transfers momentum to the magnetic domains. Our results suggest a potentially rich variety of unexpected physical phenomena associated with far-from-equilibrium inelastic electron-magnon scattering processes in the presence of spin textures

The nature of the ultrafast magnetic phase transition in nickel revealed by correlating EUV-MOKE and ARPES spectroscopies

By correlating time- and angle-resolved photoemission (Tr-ARPES) and time-resolved transverse- magneto-optical Kerr effect (Tr-TMOKE) measurements, both at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths, we uncover the nature of the ultrafast photoinduced magnetic phase transition in Ni. This allows us to explain the ultrafast magnetic response of Ni at all laser fluences - from a small reduction of the magnetization at low laser fluences, to complete quenching at high laser fluences. We provide an alternative explanation to the fluence-dependent recovery timescales commonly observed in ultrafast magneto-optical spectroscopies on ferromagnets: it is due to the bulk-averaging effect and different depths of sample exhibit distinct dynamics, depending on whether a magnetic phase transition is induced. We also show evidence of two competing channels with two distinct timescales in the recovery process, that suggest the presence of coexisting phases in the material

Critical behavior within 20 fs drives the out-of-equilibrium laser-induced magnetic phase transition in nickel

It has long been known that ferromagnets undergo a phase transition from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic at the Curie temperature, associated with critical phenomena such as a divergence in the heat capacity. A ferromagnet can also be transiently demagnetized by heating it with an ultrafast laser pulse. However, to date, the connection between out-of-equilibrium and equilibrium phase transitions, or how fast the out-of-equilibrium phase transitions can proceed, was not known. By combining time-and angle-resolved photoemission with time-resolved transverse magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopies, we show that the same critical behavior also governs the ultrafast magnetic phase transition in nickel. This is evidenced by several observations. First, we observe a divergence of the transient heat capacity of the electron spin system preceding material demagnetization. Second, when the electron temperature is transiently driven above the Curie temperature, we observe an extremely rapid change in the material response: The spin system absorbs sufficient energy within the first 20 fs to subsequently proceed through the phase transition, whereas demagnetization and the collapse of the exchange splitting occur on much longer, fluence-independent time scales of similar to 176 fs. Third, we find that the transient electron temperature alone dictates the magnetic response. Our results are important because they connect the out-of-equilibrium material behavior to the strongly coupled equilibrium behavior and uncover a new time scale in the process of ultrafast demagnetization

Direct measurement of the static and transient magneto-optical permittivity of cobalt across the entire M-edge in reflection geometry by use of polarization scanning

The microscopic state of amagnetic material is characterized by its resonant magneto-optical response through the off-diagonal dielectric tensor component epsilon(xy). However, the measurement of the full complex epsilon(xy) in the extreme ultraviolet spectral region covering the M absorption edges of 3d ferromagnets is challenging due to the need for either a careful polarization analysis, which is complicated by a lack of efficient polarization analyzers, or scanning the angle of incidence in fine steps. Here, we propose and demonstrate a technique to extract the complex resonant permittivity epsilon(xy) simply by scanning the polarization angle of linearly polarized high harmonics to measure the magneto-optical asymmetry in reflection geometry. Because this technique is more practical and faster to experimentally implement than previous approaches, we can directly measure the full time evolution of epsilon(xy)(t) during laser-induced demagnetization across the entire M-2,M-3 absorption edge of cobalt with femtosecond time resolution. We find that for polycrystalline Co films on an insulating substrate, the changes in epsilon(xy) are uniform throughout the spectrum, to within our experimental precision. This result suggests that, in the regime of strong demagnetization, the ultrafast demagnetization response is primarily dominated by magnon generation. We estimate the contribution of exchange-splitting reduction to the ultrafast demagnetization process to be no more than 25%.Web of Science972art. no. 02443

Imaging the ultrafast coherent control of a skyrmion crystal

Exotic magnetic textures emerging from the subtle interplay between thermodynamic and topological fluctuation have attracted intense interest due to their potential applications in spintronic devices. Recent advances in electron microscopy have enabled the imaging of random photo-generated individual skyrmions. However, their deterministic and dynamical manipulation is hampered by the chaotic nature of such fluctuations and the intrinsically irreversible switching between different minima in the magnetic energy landscape. Here, we demonstrate a method to coherently control the rotation of a skyrmion crystal by discrete amounts at speeds which are much faster than previously observed. By employing circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses with an energy below the bandgap of the Mott insulator Cu2OSeO3, we excite a collective magnon mode via the inverse Faraday effect. This triggers coherent magnetic oscillations that directly control the rotation of a skyrmion crystal imaged by cryo-Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy. The manipulation of topological order via ultrafast laser pulses shown here can be used to engineer fast spin-based logical devices