Giant lasing effect in magnetic nanoconductors

Abstract

We propose a new principle for a compact solid-state laser in the 1-100 THz regime. This is a frequency range where attempts to fabricate small size lasers up till now have met severe technical problems. The proposed laser is based on a new mechanism for creating spin-flip processes in ferromagnetic conductors. The mechanism is due to the interaction of light with conduction electrons; the interaction strength, being proportional to the large exchange energy, exceeds the Zeeman interaction by orders of magnitude. On the basis of this interaction, a giant lasing effect is predicted in a system where a population inversion has been created by tunneling injection of spin-polarized electrons from one ferromagnetic conductor to another -- the magnetization of the two ferromagnets having different orientations. Using experimental data for ferromagnetic manganese perovskites with nearly 100% spin polarization we show the laser frequency to be in the range 1-100 THz. The optical gain is estimated to be of order 10^7 cm^{-1}, which exceeds the gain of conventional semiconductor lasers by 3 or 4 orders of magnitude. A relevant experimental study is proposed and discussed.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Fermi Surface Nesting and Nanoscale Fluctuating Charge/Orbital Ordering in Colossal Magnetoresistive Oxides
• Grain boundary effects on magnetotransport in bi-epitaxial films of La${}_{0.7}$Sr${}_{0.3}$MnO${}_3$

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