Femtosecond single-shot imaging and control of a laser-induced first-order phase transition in HoFeO₃

Femtosecond single-shot imaging and control of a laser-induced first-order phase transition in HoFeO₃

Afanasiev, D. (TU Delft QN/Caviglia Lab; Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen; Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
Ivanov, B. A. (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev)
Pisarev, R. V. (Ioffe Institute)
Kirilyuk, A. (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
Rasing, Th (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
Kimel, A. V. (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

2017

Excitation of antiferromagnetic HoFeO₃ with a single 80 fs laser pulse triggers a first-order spin-reorientation phase transition. In the ultrafast kinetics of the transition one can distinguish the processes of impulsive excitation of spin precession, nucleation of the new domain and growth of the nuclei. The orientation of the spins in the nuclei is defined by the phase of the laser-induced coherent spin precession. The growth of the nuclei is further promoted by heating induced by the laser excitation. Hereby we demonstrate that in HoFeO₃ coherent control of the spin precession allows an effective control of the route of the heat-induced first-order magnetic phase transition. The theoretical description of the excitation of the spin precession by linearly-polarized ultrashort laser pulses is developed with the sigma model. The analysis showed high sensitivity of the excited dynamics to the initial spin orientations with respect to the crystallographic axes of the material.

domains
imaging
light-induced
magneto-optics
pumpprobe
ultrafast

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:197495ab-937b-4992-8d44-f7997e901a4d

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aa6b9b

0953-8984

Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 29 (22)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 D. Afanasiev, B. A. Ivanov, R. V. Pisarev, A. Kirilyuk, Th Rasing, A. V. Kimel