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 decoherence and dephasing. According to the researchers their findings suggest that the ability of shaping light fields in refined ways could be translated into shaping new forms of spin currents in materials… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Schematic of the experiment and static characterization… Credit: Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 106902, 6 September 20242024Â