Controlling the anisotropy of a van der Waals antiferromagnet with light

Abstract

Magnetic van der Waals materials provide an ideal playground for exploring the fundamentals of low-dimensional magnetism and open new opportunities for ultrathin spin processing devices. The Mermin-Wagner theorem dictates that as in reduced dimensions isotropic spin interactions cannot retain long-range correlations; the order is stabilized by magnetic anisotropy. Here, using ultrashort pulses of light, we demonstrate all-optical control of magnetic anisotropy in the two-dimensional van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS${}_3$. Tuning the photon energy in resonance with an orbital transition between crystal-field split levels of the nickel ions, we demonstrate the selective activation of a sub-THz two-dimensional magnon mode. The pump polarization control of the magnon amplitude confirms that the activation is governed by the instantaneous magnetic anisotropy axis emergent in response to photoexcitation of orbital states with a lowered symmetry. Our results establish pumping of orbital resonances as a universal route for manipulating magnetic order in low-dimensional (anti)ferromagnets.

References in corpus (3)

• Suppression of magnetic ordering in XXZ-type antiferromagnetic monolayer NiPS3
• Ultrafast photo-magnetic recording in transparent medium
• Temporal and spectral fingerprints of ultrafast all-coherent spin switching

Cited by in corpus (48)

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• Observation of three-state nematicity and domain evolution in atomically-thin antiferromagnetic NiPS3
• Higher-order Topological Phases of Magnons in van der Waals Honeycomb Ferromagnets
• Understanding and tuning magnetism in layered Ising-type antiferromagnet FePSe3 for potential 2D magnet
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• Enhanced Magnetization by Defect-Assisted Exciton Recombination in Atomically Thin CrCl${}_3$
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• Stabilization of zigzag order in NiPS${}_3$ via positive biquadratic interaction
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• Spin Wave Dispersion of the van der Waals Antiferromagnet NiPS${}_3$
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