Ultrafast magnetic dynamics in insulating YBa2Cu3O6.1 revealed by time resolved two-magnon Raman scattering

Abstract

Measurement and control of magnetic order and correlations in real time is a rapidly developing scientific area relevant for magnetic memory and spintronics. In these experiments an ultrashort laser pulse (pump) is first absorbed by excitations carrying electric dipole moment. These then give their energy to the magnetic subsystem monitored by a time-resolved probe. A lot of progress has been made in investigations of ferromagnets but antiferromagnets are more challenging. Here, we introduce time-resolved two-magnon Raman scattering as a real time probe of magnetic correlations especially well-suited for antiferromagnets. Its application to the antiferromagnetic charge transfer insulator YBa2Cu3O6.1 revealed rapid demagnetization within 90 fs of photoexcitation. The relaxation back to thermal equilibrium is characterized by much slower timescales. We interpret these results in terms of slow relaxation of the charge sector and rapid equilibration of the magnetic sector to a prethermal state characterized by parameters that change slowly as the charge sector relaxes.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 21, 2020
Source ID
10.1038/s41467-020-16275-9

Entities

People

  • Dmitry Reznik
  • Jhih-an Yang
  • Nicholas Pellatz
  • Rahul Nandkishore
  • Thomas Wolf

Organizations

  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Pulsed-Laser Deposition
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene