An Ultrafast View On Spins And Magnetism In Van Der Waals Materials

CIC nanoGUNE Seminars

Speaker

Marcos H. D. Guimarães
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials University of Groningen, The Netherlands

When

2023/12/11
11:00

Place

CIC nanoGUNE seminar room, Tolosa Hiribidea 76, Donostia - San Sebastian

Host

Félix Casanova

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Van der Waals (vdW) materials are ideal systems for the study of spins and magnetism in low dimensions since they maintain their excellent optical, magnetic and electronic properties down to the atomically-thin limit.  Because of their low dimensionality, these materials possess another exciting property, they are extremely sensitive to external stimuli, such as light and electric fields.

In this talk, I will show how we can use ultrashort (fs) laser pulses to detect and control spins and magnetization in vdW systems. After a brief introduction to magneto-optics and ultrafast magnetization dynamics, I will present our recent results on the 2D semiconductor MoSe₂[1] where we use ultrashort laser pulses to generate a spin accumulation and study its time dynamics which is controlled by an out-of-plane magnetic field.

I will also show examples on how the magnetization of vdW magnets can be similarly manipulated using ultrashort laser pulses, and how their magnetization dynamics can be efficiently controlled by both magnetic and electric fields. Particularly, I will show how we can control the spin lifetime in the metallic vdW magnet Fe₃GeTe₂ by rotating its magnetization[2], and how electric fields can be used to tune the magnetization dynamics in the semiconducting vdW magnet Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ [3].

Our studies illustrate the potential of vdW materials for combining optics, spintronics and magnetism, making them appealing for new opto-spintronic and opto-magnetic device architectures for future integrated photonic systems.

[1] Rojas-Lopez, et al., 2D Materials 10, 035013 (2023).

[2] Lichtenberg, et al., 2D Materials 10, 015008 (2022).

[3] Hendriks, et al., under review, arxiv:2309.12776.