Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Identification of Antiferromagnetic Domains Via the Optical Magnetoelectric Effect

2018; American Physical Society; Volume: 121; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.121.057601

1092-0145

Vilmos Kocsis, Karlo Penc, T. Rõõm, U. Nagel, Jakub Vít, Judit Romhányi, Y. Tokunaga, Y. Taguchi, Yoshinori Tokura, I. Kézsmárki, S. Bordács,

Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials

The ultimate goal of multiferroic research is the development of new-generation non-volatile memory devices, the so-called magnetoelectric (ME) memories, where magnetic bits are controlled via electric fields without the application of electrical currents subject to dissipation. This low-power operation exploits the entanglement of the magnetization and the electric polarization coexisting in multiferroic materials. Here we demonstrate the optical readout of ME memory states in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) and antiferroelectric (AFE) LiCoPO$_4$, based on the strong absorption difference of THz radiation between its two types of ME domains. This unusual contrast is attributed to the dynamic ME effect of the spin-wave excitations, as confirmed by our microscopic model, which also captures the characteristics of the observed static ME effect. Our proof-of-principle study, demonstrating the control and the optical readout of ME domains in LiCoPO$_4$, lays down the foundation for future ME memory devices based on antiferroelectric-antiferromagnetic insulators.