Optical magnetic recording not with one, but with two pairs of light linear polarizations

Creation of novel materials by design, with functionalities requested by technology needs, is the holy grail of modern materials science. Andrei Kirilyuk demonstrated, together with researchers of the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM), University of Bialystok and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), how insertion of Co ions into a YIG matrix creates a transparent magnetic material, where the magnetization can be switched by single femtosecond laser pulses. In a transparent dielectric material, light can reach any point inside which paves the way for truly 3-dimensional devices. Moreover, the possibility to choose the crystallographic surrounding of the dopants allows to tune the required wavelength of light, fitting whenever necessary for example telecommunication bands.

An intriguing continuation of this research would be an application of infrared and THz radiation of FELIX to the problem of photo-magnetic switching. Using the same number of photons in a pulse, the total energy consumption is then drastically decreased together with the energy of a single photon.

Reference

Selection rules for all-optical magnetic recording in iron garnet, A. Stupakiewicz, K. Szerenos, M. D. Davydova, K. A. Zvezdin, A. K. Zvezdin, A. Kirilyuk & A. V. Kimel, Nature Communications 10, 612 (2019)

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Andrei Kirilyuk