RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Light-Induced Reorientation Transition in an Antiferromagnetic Semiconductor
A1 Fichera, Bryan T.
A1 Lv, Baiqing
A1 Morey, Karna
A1 Shen, Zongqi
A1 Lee, Changmin
A1 Donoway, Elizabeth
A1 Liebman-Peláez, Alex
A1 Kogar, Anshul
A1 Kurumaji, Takashi
A1 Rodriguez-Vega, Martin
A1 del Toro, Rodrigo Humberto Aguilera
A1 Arruabarrena, Mikel
A1 Ilyas, Batyr
A1 Luo, Tianchuang
A1 Müller, Peter
A1 Leonardo, Aritz
A1 Ayuela, Andres
A1 Fiete, Gregory A.
A1 Checkelsky, Joseph G.
A1 Orenstein, Joseph
A1 Gedik, Nuh
K1 DFT, magnetism
AB Because of the lack of a net magnetic moment, antiferromagnets possess a unique robustness to external magnetic fields and are thus predicted to play an important role in future magnetic technologies. However, this robustness also makes them quite difficult to control, and the development of novel methods to manipulate these systems with external stimuli is a fundamental goal of antiferromagnetic spintronics. In this work, we report evidence for a metastable reorientation of the order parameter in an antiferromagnetic semiconductor triggered by an ultrafast quench of the equilibrium order via photoexcitation above the band gap. The metastable state forms less than 10 ps after the excitation pulse, and persists for longer than 150 ps before decaying to the ground state via thermal fluctuations. Importantly, this transition cannot be induced thermodynamically, and requires the system to be driven out of equilibrium. Broadly speaking, this phenomenology is ultimately the result of large magnetoelastic coupling in combination with a relatively low symmetry of the magnetic ground state. Since neither of these properties are particularly uncommon in magnetic materials, the observations presented here imply a generic path toward novel device technology enabled by ultrafast dynamics in antiferromagnets.
PB American Physical Society
SN 2160-3308
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/82703
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/82703
LA spa
NO Phys. Rev. X, febrero 2025, vol. 15
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 12-feb-2026