Laser-induced torques in metallic antiferromagnets

Abstract

We study the laser-induced torques in the antiferromagnet (AFM) Mn${}_2$Au. We find that even linearly polarized light may induce laser-induced torques in Mn${}_2$Au, i.e., the light does not have to be circularly polarized. The laser-induced torques in Mn${}_2$Au are comparable in magnitude to those in the ferromagnets Fe, Co and FePt at optical frequencies. We also compute the laser-induced torques at terahertz (THz) frequencies and compare them to the spin-orbit torques (SOTs) excited by THz laser-pulses. We find the SOTs to be dominant at THz frequencies for the laser-field strengths used in experiments. Additionally, we show that the matrix elements of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) can be used to add SOI only during the Wannier interpolation, which we call Wannier interpolation of SOI (WISOI). This technique allows us to perform the Wannier interpolation conveniently for many magnetization directions from a single set of Wannier functions.

References in corpus (6)

• All-optical control of ferromagnetic thin films and nanostructures
• Writing and Reading antiferromagnetic Mn${}_2$Au: Néel spin-orbit torques and large anisotropic magnetoresistance
• Maximally Localized Wannier Functions within the FLAPW formalism
• Theory of Current-Induced Angular Momentum Transfer Dynamics in Spin-Orbit Coupled Systems
• Imaging of current induced Néel vector switching in antiferromagnetic Mn${}_2$Au
• Laser-induced torques in metallic ferromagnets

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• Light-induced Orbital and Spin Magnetism in $3d$, $4d$, and $5d$ Transition Metals
• Competition between terahertz magnetoelectric and Néel spin-orbit torque driven spin dynamics in metallic antiferromagnets
• Theory of unidirectional magnetoresistance and nonlinear Hall effect
• Terahertz spin-orbit torque as a drive of spin dynamics in the insulating antiferromagnet Cr${}_2$O${}_3$