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Light-Induced Reorientation Transition in an Antiferromagnetic Semiconductor

Fichera, Bryan T. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000318887095)·Lv, Baiqing [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)]·Morey, Karna [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)]·Shen, Zongqi [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000255840125)·Lee, Changmin [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000180505428)·Donoway, Elizabeth [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)]·Liebman-Peláez, Alex [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)]·Kogar, Anshul [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000262833601)·Kurumaji, Takashi [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000221573727)·Rodriguez-Vega, Martin [Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)] (ORCID:0000000189296546)·del Toro, Rodrigo Aguilera [Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain); Centro de Fisica de Materials (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000161860977)·Arruabarrena, Mikel [Centro de Fisica de Materials (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000247821194)·Ilyas, Batyr [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000251352378)·Luo, Tianchuang [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]·Müller, Peter [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000165303852)·Leonardo, Aritz [Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain); Univ. of the Basque Country, Leioa (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000259422270)·Ayuela, Andres [Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain); Centro de Fisica de Materials (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000196119556)·Fiete, Gregory A. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000194770804)·Checkelsky, Joseph G. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]·Orenstein, Joseph [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)]·Gedik, Nuh [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000263944987)
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Abstract

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.

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Fichera, Bryan T. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000318887095), Lv, Baiqing [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)], Morey, Karna [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)], Shen, Zongqi [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000255840125), Lee, Changmin [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000180505428), Donoway, Elizabeth [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)], Liebman-Peláez, Alex [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)], Kogar, Anshul [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000262833601), Kurumaji, Takashi [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000221573727), Rodriguez-Vega, Martin [Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)] (ORCID:0000000189296546), del Toro, Rodrigo Aguilera [Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain); Centro de Fisica de Materials (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000161860977), Arruabarrena, Mikel [Centro de Fisica de Materials (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000247821194), Ilyas, Batyr [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000251352378), Luo, Tianchuang [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Müller, Peter [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000165303852), Leonardo, Aritz [Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain); Univ. of the Basque Country, Leioa (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000259422270), Ayuela, Andres [Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain); Centro de Fisica de Materials (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000196119556), Fiete, Gregory A. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000194770804), Checkelsky, Joseph G. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Orenstein, Joseph [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)], Gedik, Nuh [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000263944987). 2025-02-26. Light-Induced Reorientation Transition in an Antiferromagnetic Semiconductor. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.15.011044

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