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Using ultrashort optical pulses to couple ferroelectric and ferromagnetic order in an oxide heterostructure
- Source :
- Nat. Commun. 5:5832 (2014)
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- A new approach to all-optical detection and control of the coupling between electric and magnetic order on ultrafast timescales is achieved using time-resolved second harmonic generation (SHG) to study a ferroelectric (FE)/ferromagnet (FM) oxide heterostructure. We use femtosecond optical pulses to modify the spin alignment in a Ba$_{0.1}$Sr$_{0.9}$TiO$_{3}$(BSTO)/La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$ (LCMO) heterostructure and selectively probe the ferroelectric response using SHG. In this heterostructure, the pump pulses photoexcite non-equilibrium quasiparticles in LCMO, which rapidly interact with phonons before undergoing spin-lattice relaxation on a timescale of tens of picoseconds. This reduces the spin-spin interactions in LCMO, applying stress on BSTO through magnetostriction. This then modifies the FE polarization through the piezoelectric effect, on a timescale much faster than laser-induced heat diffusion from LCMO to BSTO. We have thus demonstrated an ultrafast indirect magnetoelectric effect in a FE/FM heterostructure mediated through elastic coupling, with a timescale primarily governed by spin-lattice relaxation in the FM layer.
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Materials Science
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- Nat. Commun. 5:5832 (2014)
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1501.01753
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6832