2018/02/02
Keio University
A research group at Keio University, consisting of Hiroaki Shibata (a second-year master's student at the Graduate School of Science and Technology), Senior Assistant Professor Makoto Okano, and Associate Professor Shinichi Watanabe of the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, has successfully achieved ultrafast control of spin precession in a metallic ferromagnetic thin film by using two successive light pulses.
Currently, research is being actively conducted to utilize spin waves as a new information carrier. In particular, establishing an ultrafast control method for spin waves in metallic ferromagnets, which are promising magnetic device materials, is of practical importance. To control the propagation of spin waves, it is necessary to control local spin precession. In this study, we successfully controlled the amplitude of spin precession by irradiating a metallic ferromagnetic thin film sample with two light pulses while varying the time interval between them. These experimental results were well reproduced by numerical simulations, which clearly explained the control mechanism of spin precession. In the future, ultrafast control of spin wave propagation is expected by leveraging the controllability of spin precession with light pulses.
The results of this research were published in "Physical Review B" on January 31, 2018 (local time).
For the full press release, please see below.