Phys.org  September 13, 2024 An international team of researchers (USA – UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, France, Canada, Germany, Austria) measured the light-driven response of a magnetic multilayer structure made of thin alternating layers of cobalt and platinum at the few-femtosecond timescale. They observed how light rearranges the magnetic moment during and after excitation. The results revealed a sub-5 fs spike of magnetization in the platinum layer, which followed the shape of the driving pulse. They interpreted the observations as light-driven spin injection across the metallic layers of the structure. The light-triggered spin current was strikingly short, largely outpacing […]