Direct light–induced spin transfer between different elements in a spintronic Heusler material via femtosecond laser excitation

Tengdin, Phoebe; Gentry, Christian; Blonsky, Adam; Zusin, Dmitriy; Gerrity, Michael; Hellbrück, Lukas; Hofherr, Moritz; Shaw, Justin; Kvashnin, Yaroslav; Delczeg-Czirjak, Erna K.; Arora, Monika; Nembach, Hans; Silva, Tom J.; Mathias, Stefan; Aeschlimann, Martin; Kapteyn, Henry C.; Thonig, Danny; Koumpouras, Konstantinos; Eriksson, Olle; Murnane, Margaret M.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz1100

Title: Direct light–induced spin transfer between different elements in a spintronic Heusler material via femtosecond laser excitation

Journal Article · 17 January 2020 · Science Advances

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1100 · OSTI ID:1626056

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^[1]; Zusin, Dmitriy ^[1];

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^[2]; Shaw, Justin ^[3]; Kvashnin, Yaroslav ^[4]; Delczeg-Czirjak, Erna K. ^[4];

^[3]; Nembach, Hans ^[1];

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^[7]; Eriksson, Olle ^[6]; Murnane, Margaret M. ^[1]

Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States)
University of Kaiserslautern (Germany). Research Center OPTIMAS
National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States)
University Uppsala (Sweden). Department of Physics and Astronomy
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany). I. Physikalisches Institut
University Uppsala (Sweden). Department of Physics and Astronomy; Örebro University (Sweden). School of Science and Technology
Luleå University (Sweden). Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics

Heusler compounds are exciting materials for future spintronics applications because they display a wide range of tunable electronic and magnetic interactions. Here, we use a femtosecond laser to directly transfer spin polarization from one element to another in a half-metallic Heusler material, Co2MnGe. This spin transfer initiates as soon as light is incident on the material, demonstrating spatial transfer of angular momentum between neighboring atomic sites on time scales < 10 fs. Using ultrafast high harmonic pulses to simultaneously and independently probe the magnetic state of two elements during laser excitation, we find that the magnetization of Co is enhanced, while that of Mn rapidly quenches. Density functional theory calculations show that the optical excitation directly transfers spin from one magnetic sublattice to another through preferred spin-polarized excitation pathways. This direct manipulation of spins via light provides a path toward spintronic devices that can operate on few-femtosecond or faster time scales.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0002002; SC0017643

OSTI ID:: 1626056

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1678721; OSTI ID: 1957801

Journal Information:: Science Advances, Vol. 6, Issue 3; ISSN 2375-2548

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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