27th November 2009 11 a.m. Seminar Room, School of Physics and Astronomy, Building 46
IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture: Controlling magnetism with light
Professor Theo Rasing
Institute of Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Netherlands
- Web page
- http://www.ieeemagnetics.org/newpages/toplevelpages/dist_2009.html
- Categories
- Micromagnetics
- Submitter
- Deborah Guy
Prof Theo Rasing
The interaction of light with magnetic matter is well known: magneto optical Faraday or Kerr effects are frequently used to probe the magnetic state of materials or manipulate the polarisation of light . The inverse effects are less known but certainly as fascinating: with light one can manipulate magnetic matter, for example orient their spins.
Using femtosecond laser pulses Theo Rasing’s group has recently demonstrated that one can generate ultrashort and very strong (~Teslas) magnetic field pulses via the so called Inverse Faraday Effect. Such optically-induced magnetic field pulses provide unprecedented means for the generation, manipulation and coherent control of magnetic order on very short time scales, including the complete reversal of a magnet with a single 40 femtosecond laser pulse. This opens the way for all-optical recording of magnetic bits at extremely high data rates. The basic ideas behind these discoveries will be discussed and illustrated with recent results.