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.

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., Olejník, K., Kašpar, Z., Geishendorf, K., Novák, V., Campion, R. P., Wolf, M., Jungwirth, T., & 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
• 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