Phys.org May 28, 2018
The magnetization of a material is associated with the spatial ordering of the spins of its constituent particles. An international team of researchers (Brazil, Austria) demonstrated that light resonant with the band gap forces the antiferromagnetic semiconductor EuSe to enter ferromagnetic alignment in the picosecond timescale. By increasing the light intensity, the whole of the illuminated region can be fully magnetized… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Alignment of europium atom spins by light. Credit: André Bohomoletz Henriques