Fundamentals and perspectivesof ultrafast photoferroic recording

Publication date: Available online 14 February 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): A.V. Kimel, A.M. Kalashnikova, A. Pogrebna, A.K. ZvezdinAbstractThe ability to switch ferroics (ferro-, ferri-, antiferromagnets, ferroelectrics, multiferroics) between two stable bit states is one of the keystones of modern data storage technology. Due to many new ideas, originating from fundamental research during the last 50 years, this technology has developed in a breath-taking fashion. Finding a conceptually new way to control ferroic state of a medium with the lowest possible production of heat and at the fastest possible time-scale is a new challenge in fundamental condensed matter research. Controlling ferroic state of media by light is a promising approach to this problem. Photomagnetism and photoferroelectricity have long been intriguing and the development of femtosecond laser sources made this approach even more appealing. Laser pulse is the shortest stimulus in contemporary experimental physics of condensed matter. While commercial lasers are able to produce pulses with duration of the order of tens of femtosecond, advanced laser sources can generate intense pulses of light even at the sub-femtosecond time-scale. Seeking understanding a response of magnetically-ordered media to ultrashort excitation led to foundation of new research field of ultrafast magnetism, discoveries of all-optical magnetic switching in various metallic and dielectric materials. Despite obvious analogies ...

Source: Physics Reports - February 16, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research