Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

An effective magnetic field from optically driven phonons

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 132–136 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Light fields at terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies allow for the direct excitation of collective modes in condensed matter, which can be driven to large amplitudes. For example, excitation of the crystal lattice1,2 has been shown to stimulate insulator–metal transitions3,4, melt magnetic order5,6 or enhance superconductivity7,8,9. Here, we generalize these ideas and explore the simultaneous excitation of more than one lattice mode, which are driven with controlled relative phases. This nonlinear mode mixing drives rotations as well as displacements of the crystal-field atoms, mimicking the application of a magnetic field and resulting in the excitation of spin precession in the rare-earth orthoferrite ErFeO3. Coherent control of lattice rotations may become applicable to other interesting problems in materials research—for example, as a way to affect the topology of electronic phases.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Structure and magnetic properties.
Figure 2: Transient birefringence measurement.
Figure 3: Pump wavelength, fluence, polarization and external field dependence at 100 K.
Figure 4: Temperature dependence.
Figure 5: Calculated ionic and magnetic dynamics.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Först, M. et al. Nonlinear phononics as an ultrafast route to lattice control. Nat. Phys. 7, 854–856 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Subedi, A., Cavalleri, A. & Georges, A. Theory of nonlinear phononics for coherent light control of solids. Phys. Rev. B 89, 220301(R) (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rini, M. et al. Control of the electronic phase of a manganite by mode-selective vibrational excitation. Nature 449, 72–74 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Caviglia, A. D. et al. Ultrafast strain engineering in complex oxide heterostructures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 136801 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Först, M. et al. Driving magnetic order in a manganite by ultrafast lattice excitation. Phys. Rev. B 84, 241104(R) (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Först, M. et al. Spatially resolved ultrafast magnetic dynamics launched at a complex-oxide hetero-interface. Nat. Mater. 14, 883–888 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kaiser, S. et al. Optically induced coherent transport far above Tc in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+δ . Phys. Rev. B 89, 184516 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hu, W. et al. Optically enhanced coherent transport in YBa2Cu3O6.5 by ultrafast redistribution of interlayer coupling. Nat. Mater. 13, 705–711 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Mitrano, M. et al. Possible light-induced superconductivity in K3C60 at high temperature. Nature 530, 461–464 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Tsymbal, L. T. et al. Natural behavior of the magnetization under spontaneous reorientation: TmFeO3, ErFeO3 . Low Temp. Phys. 31, 277–282 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Gupta, H. C. et al. Lattice dynamic investigation of Raman and infrared wavenumbers at the zone center of orthorhombic RFeO3 (R = Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm) perovskites. J. Raman Spectrosc. 33, 67–70 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Korenev, V. L. et al. Long-range p–d exchange interaction in a ferromagnet–semiconductor hybrid structure. Nat. Phys. 12, 85–91 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Kubacka, T. et al. Large-amplitude spin dynamics driven by a THz pulse in resonance with an electromagnon. Science 343, 1333–1336 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Katsura, H., Nagaosa, N. & Balatsky, A. V. Spin current and magnetoelectric effect in noncollinear magnets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 057205 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Spaldin, N. A. & Fiebig, M. The renaissance of magnetoelectric multiferroics. Science 309, 391–392 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Koshizuka, N. & Ushioda, S. Inelastic-light-scattering study of magnon softening in ErFeO3 . Phys. Rev. B 22, 5394–5399 (1980).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. White, R. M., Nemanich, R. J. & Herring, C. Light scattering from magnetic excitations in orthoferrites. Phys. Rev. B 25, 1822–1836 (1982).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Pisarev, R. V. et al. Charge transfer transitions in multiferroic BiFeO3 and related ferrite insulators. Phys. Rev. B 79, 235128 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Fleury, P. A. & Loudon, R. Scattering of light by one- and two-magnon excitations. Phys. Rev. 166, 514 (1968).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Pershan, P. S., van der Ziel, J. P. & Malmstrom, L. D. Theoretical discussion of the inverse Faraday effect, Raman scattering, and related phenomena. Phys. Rev. 143, 574–583 (1966).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kirilyuk, A., Kimel, A. V. & Rasing, T. Ultrafast optical manipulation of magnetic order. Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2731–2784 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Yamaguchi, K. et al. Terahertz time-domain observation of spin reorientation in orthoferrite ErFeO3 through magnetic free induction decay. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 137204 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Iida, R. et al. Spectral dependence of photoinduced spin precession in DyFeO3 . Phys. Rev. B 84, 064402 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Kimel, A. V. et al. Ultrafast non-thermal control of magnetization by instantaneous photomagnetic pulses. Nature 435, 655–657 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Mikhaylovskiy, R. V. et al. Ultrafast optical modification of exchange interactions in iron oxides. Nat. Commun. 6, 8190 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Abedi, A., Maitra, N. T. & Gross, E. K. U. Correlated electron-nuclear dynamics: exact factorization of the molecular wavefunction. J. Chem. Phys. 137, 22A530 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Min, S. K., Abedi, A., Kim, K. S. & Gross, E. K. U. Is the molecular Berry phase an artifact of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation? Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 263004 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Sentef, M. A. et al. Theory of Floquet band formation and local pseudospin textures in pump–probe photoemission of graphene. Nat. Commun. 6, 7047 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Wang, Y. H. et al. Observation of Floquet–Bloch states on the surface of a topological insulator. Science 342, 453–457 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Deng, G. et al. The magnetic structures and transitions of a potential multiferroic orthoferrite ErFeO3 . J. Appl. Phys. 117, 164105 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Cerullo, G., Baltuška, A., Mücke, O. D. & Vozzi, C. Few-optical-cycle light pulses with passive carrier-envelope phase stabilization. Laser Photon. Rev. 5, 323–351 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Sell, A., Scheu, R., Leitenstorfer, A. & Huber, R. Field-resolved detection of phase-locked infrared transients from a compact Er:fiber system tunable between 55 and 107 THz. Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 251107 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. Subedi, D. M. Juraschek, M. Fechner and N. A. Spaldin for sharing the calculated phonon eigenvectors and for useful discussions. We thank R. V. Pisarev for providing the samples. We additionally acknowledge support from J. Harms (for graphics), D. Nicoletti (for FTIR measurements) and G. Meier (for sample characterization). A.V.K., R.V.M. and D.B. thank I. Razdolski for fruitful discussions of the first experiments and Th. Rasing for continuous support. The research leading to these results received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 319286 (QMAC). We acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via the excellence cluster ‘The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging—Structure, Dynamics and Control of Matter at the Atomic Scale’. A.V.K., R.V.M. and D.B. acknowledge partial support by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) Grant No. 281043 (Femtospin).

Author information

Author notes

  1. D. Bossini

    Present address: Present address: The University of Tokyo, Institute for Photon Science and Technology, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

    T. F. Nova, A. Cartella, A. Cantaluppi, M. Först & A. Cavalleri

  2. Radboud University, Institute for Molecules and Materials, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    D. Bossini, R. V. Mikhaylovskiy & A. V. Kimel

  3. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA

    R. Merlin

  4. University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK

    A. Cavalleri

Authors
  1. T. F. Nova
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Cartella
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Cantaluppi
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Först
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. D. Bossini
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. R. V. Mikhaylovskiy
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  7. A. V. Kimel
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  8. R. Merlin
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  9. A. Cavalleri
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.Cavalleri conceived the project together with T.F.N. T.F.N. and A.Cartella built the mid-infrared pump/Faraday-rotation probe experimental set-up with help from A.Cantaluppi and M.F. T.F.N. and A.Cartella performed the measurements. A.Cartella and T.F.N. developed the 1D-FDTD code and performed the simulations with help from R.V.M. (for the solution of the Landau–Lifshitz equation). T.F.N. analysed the experimental data. A.V.K., R.V.M. and D.B. identified the material system for the project and helped in the analysis of the data. R.M. collaborated in the interpretation of the data. The manuscript was written by T.F.N. and A.Cavalleri, with feedback from all co-authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to T. F. Nova or A. Cavalleri.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information

Supplementary information (PDF 892 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nova, T., Cartella, A., Cantaluppi, A. et al. An effective magnetic field from optically driven phonons. Nature Phys 13, 132–136 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3925

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3925

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing