New publication: Ultrafast Amplification and Nonlinear Magnetoelastic Coupling of Coherent Magnon Modes in an Antiferromagnet
The continuously growing demand of data storage and processing in the cloud can be sustained with the presently available technology only for a limited time-window (approximately 10 years). The necessary novel concept must reduce the energy consumption while simultaneously increase the operational speed of the data storage, transfer and processing. Antiferromagnets are the most promising materials for the next-generation information technology devices, since in combination with femtosecond laser pulses they can deliver both the aforementioned requirements, operating at the ultrafast (i.e. femtosecond) time-scale. These materials present in nature different magnetic regions, so called domains, which are ubiquitous. An international team of physicists have discovered that the walls between different domains, which are always present but so far neglected in relation to ultrafast processes in antiferromagnets, play an active role in the dynamic magnetic properties. The experimental results show that magnetic waves with different frequencies can be induced, amplified and even coupled with each other across different domains, which is possible only in the presence of domain walls. The relevance of this work consists in demonstrating the possibility to take advantage of the ubiquitous walls in antiferromagnets, enabling novel functionalities in solids on the ultrafast time-scale. Since different magnetic waves were coupled, it may be possible to actively control their propagation in time, space and even energy transfer among them, which mimics the manipulation of the data flow required to develop a successful information technology.