Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 31: Focus: Ultra-fast magnetism under electronic nonequilibrium conditions

MA 31.5: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 17:15–17:45, H 1012

Controlling, probing and harnessing the strongest force in magnetism — •Alexey Kimel — Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands

The idea to change magnetic properties of media with the help of light has long intrigued people in physics and chemistry. Naturally, this raises the question about the speed limit of the optical control of magnetism. Fundamentally, magnetic order is a macroscopic manifestation of a quantum mechanical exchange coupling between spins. This exchange coupling represents the largest interaction in magnetism. It can be associated with an effective magnetic field of 100-1000 T. The strength can be appreciated from the fact that magnetic order in condensed matter survives well above room temperature. Obviously, harnessing the exchange interaction is the way to achieve the ultimately fastest magnetic switching. How can we control, probe and harness the exchange interaction for ultrafast magnetic switching? Here we demonstrate that the exchange interaction can be manipulated through ultrafast laser excitation in a large class of transition metal oxides. We show that using ultrashort laser pulses one can monitor laser-induced dynamics of the energy of the exchange interaction with subpicosecond temporal resolution. Finally, we suggest a scenario in which the strength of the exchange interaction is employed to achieve the fastest possible magnetic switching.