Optically Gated Terahertz-Field-Driven Switching of Antiferromagnetic CuMnAs

Heitz, J. J.F.; Nádvorník, L.; Balos, V.; Behovits, Y.; Chekhov, A. L.; Seifert, T. S.; Olejník, K.; Kašpar, Z.; Geishendorf, K.; Novák, V.; Campion, R. P.; Wolf, M.; Jungwirth, T.; Kampfrath, T.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.064047

Optically Gated Terahertz-Field-Driven Switching of Antiferromagnetic CuMnAs

Heitz, J. J.F.; Nádvorník, L.; Balos, V.; Behovits, Y.; Chekhov, A. L.; Seifert, T. S.; Olejník, K.; Kašpar, Z.; Geishendorf, K.; Novák, V.; Campion, R. P.; Wolf, M.; Jungwirth, T.; Kampfrath, T.

Authors

J. J.F. Heitz

L. Nádvorník

V. Balos

Y. Behovits

A. L. Chekhov

T. S. Seifert

K. Olejník

Z. Kašpar

K. Geishendorf

V. Novák

RICHARD CAMPION RICHARD.CAMPION@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Principal Research Fellow

M. Wolf

TOMAS JUNGWIRTH tomas.jungwirth@nottingham.ac.uk
Research Professor of Ferromagnetic Semiconductors

T. Kampfrath

Abstract

We show scalable and complete suppression of the recently reported terahertz-pulse-induced switching between different resistance states of antiferromagnetic CuMnAs thin films by ultrafast gating. The gating functionality is achieved by an optically generated transiently conductive parallel channel in the semiconducting substrate underneath the metallic layer. The photocarrier lifetime determines the timescale of the suppression. As we do not observe a direct impact of the optical pulse on the state of CuMnAs, all observed effects are primarily mediated by the substrate. The sample region of suppressed resistance switching is given by the optical spot size, thereby making our scheme potentially applicable for transient low-power masking of structured areas with feature sizes of about 200 nm and even smaller.

Citation

Heitz, J. J., Nádvorník, L., Balos, V., Behovits, Y., Chekhov, A. L., Seifert, T. S., …Kampfrath, T. (2021). Optically Gated Terahertz-Field-Driven Switching of Antiferromagnetic CuMnAs. Physical Review Applied, 16(6), Article 064047. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.064047

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Nov 24, 2021
Online Publication Date	Dec 20, 2021
Publication Date	Dec 20, 2021
Deposit Date	Jan 31, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jan 31, 2022
Journal	Physical Review Applied
Electronic ISSN	2331-7019
Publisher	American Physical Society (APS)
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	16
Issue	6
Article Number	064047
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.064047
Keywords	General Physics and Astronomy
Public URL	https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7356874
Publisher URL	https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.064047