Terahertz electric-field driven dynamical multiferroicity in SrTiO${}_3$

Abstract

The emergence of collective order in matter is among the most fundamental and intriguing phenomena in physics. In recent years, the ultrafast dynamical control and creation of novel ordered states of matter not accessible in thermodynamic equilibrium is receiving much attention. Among those, the theoretical concept of dynamical multiferroicity has been introduced to describe the emergence of magnetization by means of a time-dependent electric polarization in non-ferromagnetic materials. In simple terms, a large amplitude coherent rotating motion of the ions in a crystal induces a magnetic moment along the axis of rotation. However, the experimental verification of this effect is still lacking. Here, we provide evidence of room temperature magnetization in the archetypal paraelectric perovskite SrTiO${}_3$ due to this mechanism. To achieve it, we resonantly drive the infrared-active soft phonon mode with intense circularly polarized terahertz electric field, and detect a large magneto-optical Kerr effect. A simple model, which includes two coupled nonlinear oscillators whose forces and couplings are derived with ab-initio calculations using self-consistent phonon theory at a finite temperature, reproduces qualitatively our experimental observations on the temporal and frequency domains. A quantitatively correct magnitude of the effect is obtained when one also considers the phonon analogue of the reciprocal of the Einsten - de Haas effect, also called the Barnett effect, where the total angular momentum from the phonon order is transferred to the electronic one. Our findings show a new path for designing ultrafast magnetic switches by means of coherent control of lattice vibrations with light.

Main text: 10 pages, 4 figures, methods and 8 supplemental figures

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• Observation of Phonon Angular Momentum
• Phonon-induced geometric chirality
• Phonon Inverse Faraday effect from electron-phonon coupling
• Light Induced Orbital Magnetism in Metals via Inverse Faraday Effect
• Magnetic switching of phonon angular momentum in a ferrimagnetic insulator
• Colossal terahertz emission with ultrafast tunability based on van der Waals ferroelectric NbOI${}_2$
• Chiral phonons in polar LiNbO3
• Time-domain study of coupled collective excitations in quantum materials
• Tunable Spatiotemporal Orders in Driven Insulators
• Phonon-driven multipolar dynamics in a spin-orbit coupled Mott insulator
• Polar phonons and magnetic excitations in the antiferromagnet CoF${}_2$
• Theory of spin Seebeck effect activated by acoustic chiral phonons
• Theory of nonlinear terahertz susceptibility in ferroelectrics
• Gauge theory of giant phonon magnetic moment in doped Dirac semimetals
• Structured light and induced vorticity in superconductors I: Linearly polarized light
• Structured light and induced vorticity in superconductors II: Quantum Print with Laguerre-Gaussian beam
• Terahertz Control of Linear and Nonlinear Magno-Phononics
• Phonon Edelstein effect in chiral metals
• Simple THz phase retarder based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer for polarization control
• Spin-spin interaction mediated by chiral phonons
• Ultrafast pseudomagnetic fields from electron-nuclear quantum geometry
• Orbital Inverse Faraday and Cotton-Mouton Effects in Hall Fluids
• Soft phonon and the central peak at the cubic-to-tetragonal phase transition in SrTiO${}_3$
• Magnetic Signature of Chiral Phonons Revealed by Neutron Spectroscopy in Ferrimagnetic Fe${}_{1.75}$Zn${}_{0.25}$Mo${}_3$O${}_8$
• Einstein-de Haas effect: a bridge linking mechanics, magnetism, and topology
• Ultrafast Entropy Production in Non-Equilibrium Magnets
• Anomalous phonon magnetic moments
• Origin of Oxygen Partial Pressure-Dependent Conductivity in SrTiO3
• Lattice excitations with finite polarization and magnetization
• Theory of terahertz pulse transmission through ferroelectric nanomembranes
• Terahertz-driven parametric excitation of Raman-active phonons in LaAlO${}_3$
• Observation of angular momentum transfer among crystal lattice modes
• Tuning chirality amplitude at ultrafast timescales
• Band topology and dynamic multiferroicity induced from dynamical Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in centrosymmetric lattices
• Intrinsic thermal Hall effect of optical phonons enhanced by discrete rotational symmetry
• Pseudo-chiral phonon splitting from octupolar magnetic order
• Quality of Helicity-Dependent Magnetization Switching by Phonons
• Nanoscale Polar Landscapes in Quantum Paraelectric SrTiO3
• Terahertz light driven coherent excitation of a zone-folded Raman-active phonon mode in the Spin-Ladder System ${\alpha }^{\prime }$-NaV${}_2$O${}_5$
• Supercurrent-induced phonon angular momentum
• Frequency renormalization and its effects in nonlinear phononics with $Q_R{Q}_{IR}^2$-type coupling
• Chiral Phonons Arising From Chirality-Selective Magnon-Phonon Coupling