Berlin 2018 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 21: Poster I
MA 21.46: Poster
Tuesday, March 13, 2018, 09:30–13:00, Poster A
Terahertz writing of an antiferromagnetic memory — •Tom Seifert1, Kamil Olejník2, Tomas Jungwirth2,3, and Tobias Kampfrath1 — 1Fritz Haber Institut der MPG, Berlin, Germany — 2Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic — 3University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
The electrical switching of the magnetic order of antiferromagnets (AFMs) using Néel spin-orbit torques (NSOT) paved the way for AFM-based memory applications [1]. Importantly, in AFMs the frequencies of long-wavelength magnons are strongly enhanced by the exchange interaction opening up the potential for terahertz (THz) switching speeds [2]. Previous studies showed the feasibility of electrical writing of AMFs with pulse lengths from milliseconds to hundreds of picoseconds [3].
Here, we further reduce the current duration down to the picosecond time scale employing an all-optical writing scheme based on free-space THz pulses. With these picosecond laser pulses [4], we observe the analogous switching phenomenology of epitaxial CuMnAs films as with millisecond and nanosecond current pulses. Our results suggest that the current-induced NSOT switching mechanism for AFMs is also operative in the THz range.
The presented results were obtained in close collaboration with the groups of R.P. Campion, P. Gambardella, P. Kuzel, P. Nemec, J. Sinova and J. Wunderlich.
[1] P. Wadley et al., Science 351 (2016). [2] T. Kampfrath et al., Nat. Phot. 5 (2011). [3] K. Olejník et al., Nat. Commun. 8 (2017). [4] K. Olejník et al., arXiv:1711.08444 (2017).