Copus and Iacocca Publish in Nature Communications

The study of far-from-equilibrium phenomena in magnets is made possible, in part, by the use of femtosecond optical pulses and x-ray probes. In the field of ultrafast physics, there exists a technique where two ultrafast pulses interfere on a surface and result in an intensity grating, allowing for the spatial modulation of ultrafast phenomena. Recently, scientists at Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste, Italy, devised a new technique where the incident laser fluences of the two interfering lasers are held constant as their polarizations interfere and imprint a “nanoscale polarization grating.”

The first implementation of this experimental technique on magnetic materials demonstrated a large and unexpected response in the magnetization of sample. The experimental results could be explained by simulations using a pseudospectral model developed by the group of Prof. Iacocca and extended to two-dimensions by Dr. Matthew Copus. These simulations concluded that the polarization grating acted as a primarily deterministic effect and the imprinted grating in the magnetization evolved and slowly dissipated by magnon scattering. This new excitation mechanism is promising and should be helpful in the investigation of spatially-dependent, ultrafast phenomena and could lead to a better understanding of the manipulation of magnetic solitons by optical means.

The results are published in L. Foglia et al., Nature Communications 15, 10742 (2024)