Joseph Barker

Transient ferromagnetic-like state mediating ultrafast reversal of antiferromagnetically coupled spins

Ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic spin ordering is governed by the exchange interaction, the strongest force in magnetism. Understanding spin dynamics in magnetic materials is an issue of crucial importance for progress in information processing and recording technology. Usually the dynamics are studied by observing the collective response of exchange-coupled spins, that is, spin resonances, after an external perturbation by a pulse of magnetic field, current or light. The periods of the corresponding resonances range from one nanosecond for ferromagnets down to one picosecond for antiferromagnets. However, virtually nothing is known about the behaviour of spins in a magnetic material after being excited on a timescale faster than that corresponding to the exchange interaction (10–100 fs), that is, in a non-adiabatic way. Here we use the element-specific technique X-ray magnetic circular dichroism to study spin reversal in GdFeCo that is optically excited on a timescale pertinent to the characteristic time of the exchange interaction between Gd and Fe spins. We unexpectedly find that the ultrafast spin reversal in this material, where spins are coupled antiferromagnetically, occurs by way of a transient ferromagnetic-like state. Following the optical excitation, the net magnetizations of the Gd and Fe sublattices rapidly collapse, switch their direction and rebuild their net magnetic moments at substantially different timescales; the net magnetic moment of the Gd sublattice is found to reverse within 1.5 picoseconds, which is substantially slower than the Fe reversal time of 300 femtoseconds. Consequently, a transient state characterized by a temporary parallel alignment of the net Gd and Fe moments emerges, despite their ground-state antiferromagnetic coupling. These surprising observations, supported by atomistic simulations, provide a concept for the possibility of manipulating magnetic order on the timescale of the exchange interaction.

Ultrafast heating as a sufficient stimulus for magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet

The question of how, and how fast, magnetization can be reversed is a topic of great practical interest for the manipulation and storage of magnetic information. It is generally accepted that magnetization reversal should be driven by a stimulus represented by time-non-invariant vectors such as a magnetic field, spin-polarized electric current, or cross-product of two oscillating electric fields. However, until now it has been generally assumed that heating alone, not represented as a vector at all, cannot result in a deterministic reversal of magnetization, although it may assist this process. Here we show numerically and demonstrate experimentally a novel mechanism of deterministic magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet driven by an ultrafast heating of the medium resulting from the absorption of a sub-picosecond laser pulse without the presence of a magnetic field.

Static and Dynamical Properties of Antiferromagnetic Skyrmions in the Presence of Applied Current and Temperature

Skyrmions are topologically protected entities in magnetic materials which have the potential to be used in spintronics for information storage and processing. However, Skyrmions in ferromagnets have some intrinsic difficulties which must be overcome to use them for spintronic applications, such as the inability to move straight along current. We show that Skyrmions can also be stabilized and manipulated in antiferromagnetic materials. An antiferromagnetic Skyrmion is a compound topological object with a similar but of opposite sign spin texture on each sublattice, which, e.g., results in a complete cancellation of the Magnus force. We find that the composite nature of antiferromagnetic Skyrmions gives rise to different dynamical behavior due to both an applied current and temperature effects.

Two-magnon bound state causes ultrafast thermally induced magnetisation switching.

There has been much interest recently in the discovery of thermally induced magnetisation switching using femtosecond laser excitation, where a ferrimagnetic system can be switched deterministically without an applied magnetic field. Experimental results suggest that the reversal occurs due to intrinsic material properties, but so far the microscopic mechanism responsible for reversal has not been identified. Using computational and analytic methods we show that the switching is caused by the excitation of two-magnon bound states, the properties of which are dependent on material factors. This discovery allows us to accurately predict the onset of switching and the identification of this mechanism will allow new classes of materials to be identified or designed for memory devices in the THz regime.

Origin of the spin Seebeck effect in compensated ferrimagnets

Magnons are the elementary excitations of a magnetically ordered system. In ferromagnets, only a single band of low-energy magnons needs to be considered, but in ferrimagnets the situation is more complex owing to different magnetic sublattices involved. In this case, low lying optical modes exist that can affect the dynamical response. Here we show that the spin Seebeck effect (SSE) is sensitive to the complexities of the magnon spectrum. The SSE is caused by thermally excited spin dynamics that are converted to a voltage by the inverse spin Hall effect at the interface to a heavy metal contact. By investigating the temperature dependence of the SSE in the ferrimagnet gadolinium iron garnet, with a magnetic compensation point near room temperature, we demonstrate that higher-energy exchange magnons play a key role in the SSE.

Thermal Spin Dynamics of Yttrium Iron Garnet.

The magnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet can be grown with near perfection and is therefore and ideal conduit for spin currents. It is a complex material with 20 magnetic moments in the unit cell. In spite of being a ferrimagnet, YIG is almost always modeled as a simple ferromagnet with a single spin wave mode. We use the method of atomistic spin dynamics to study the temperature evolution of the full spin wave spectrum, in quantitative agreement with neutron scattering experiments. The antiferromagnetic or optical mode is found to suppress the spin Seebeck effect at room temperature and beyond due to thermally pumped spin currents with opposite polarization to the ferromagnetic mode.

Ultrafast dynamical path for the switching of a ferrimagnet after femtosecond heating

Ultrafast laser-induced magnetic switching in rare earth, transition metal ferrimagnetic alloys has recently been reported to occur by ultrafast heating alone. Using atomistic simulations and a ferrimagnetic Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch formalism, we demonstrate that for switching to occur it is necessary that angular momentum is transferred from the longitudinal to transverse magnetization components. This dynamical path leads to magnetization switching and subsequent ultrafast precession caused by the inter-sublattice exchange field on the nanoscale.

Spin Hall magnetoresistance in a canted ferrimagnet

We study the spin Hall magnetoresistance effect in ferrimagnet/normal metal bilayers, comparing the response in collinear and canted magnetic phases. In the collinear magnetic phase, in which the sublattice magnetic moments are all aligned along the same axis, we observe the conventional spin Hall magnetoresistance. In contrast, in the canted phase, the magnetoresistance changes sign. Using atomistic spin simulations and x-ray absorption experiments, we can understand these observations in terms of the magnetic field and temperature dependent orientation of magnetic moments on different magnetic sublattices. This enables a magnetotransport based investigation of noncollinear magnetic textures.

Higher-order exchange interactions leading to metamagnetism in FeRh

The origin of the metamagnetic antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition of FeRh is a subject of much debate. Competing explanations invoke magnetovolume effects and purely ther- modynamic transitions within the spin system. It is experimentally difficult to observe the changes in the magnetic system and the lattice simultaneously, leading to differing conclusions over which mechanism is responsible for the phase transition. A non-collinear electronic structure study by Mryasov [O.N. Mryasov, Phase Transitions 78, 197 (2005)] showed that non-linear behavior of the Rh moment leads to higher order exchange terms in FeRh. Using atomistic spin dynamics (ASD) we demonstrate that the phase transition can occur due to the competition between bilinear and the higher order four spin exchange terms in an effective spin Hamiltonian. The phase transition we see is of first order and shows thermal hysteresis in agreement with experimental observations. Simulating sub-picosecond laser heating we show an agreement with pump-probe experiments with a ferromagnetic response on a picosecond timescale.

The Landau–Lifshitz equation in atomistic models

The Landau–Lifshitz (LL) equation, originally proposed at the macrospin level, is increasingly used in Atomistic Spin Dynamic (ASD) models. These models are based on a spin Hamiltonian featuring atomic spins of fixed length, with the exchange introduced using the Heisenberg formalism. ASD models are proving a powerful approach to the fundamental understanding of ultrafast magnetization dynamics, including the prediction of the thermally induced magnetization switching phenomenon in which the magnetization is reversed using an ultra-fast laser pulse in the absence of an externally applied field. This paper outlines the ASD model approach and considers the role and limitations of the LL equation in this context.