Ultrafast Manipulation of Spins in Antiferromagnetic Materials : New Avenue in Magnetic Memory?(<Review Articles>New Picture of Magnetization Reversal Phenomena)

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The study of ultrafast (10^<-12>s and faster) magnetization dynamics and the search for high speed magnetic switching have become topics of ultimate interest in both condensed matter physics and information storage technology. So far, most studies of ultrafast spin dynamics were focused on ferromagnetic materials because of their obvious relevance for applications. However, due to the fact that in antiferromagnets no angular momentum is associated with the order parameter, spin dynamics in these materials is intrinsically much faster than in ferromagnets. Thus, in the search for the ultimate speed of magnetic dynamics and switching, one should focus attention to antiferromagnets. Here we describe our recent finding that ultrafast laser pulses can change the magnetic anisotropy of an antiferromagnet within 1ps. This allows one to manipulate the spins of antiferromagnets on a time scale of a few picoseconds, in contrast to the hundreds of picoseconds in a ferromagnet. Our findings can expand the now limited set of applications of antiferromagnetic materials and revolutionize the technology of ultrafast magnetic recording.
社団法人日本磁気学会の論文
2005-05-01