Simulations of all optical switching using TDDFT

Time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is an ab-initio method for studying the magnetization dynamics induced by strong laser pulses. We have previously applied TDDFT to study ultrafast demagnetization in simple ferromagnets[1,2] and optical inter sublattice spin transfer (OISTR)[3] where we found we could switch the magnetic ordering from AFM to a transient FM state[4]. In this work, we simulate RE-TM2 compounds in the C15 Laves geometry and ask whether OISTR plays a role in the all optical switching observed in such materials.

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[2] Ultrafast demagnetization in bulk versus thin films: an ab initio study, K. Krieger, P. Elliott, T. Mueller, N. Singh, J.K. Dewhurst, E.K.U. Gross, and S. Sharma, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 29, 224001 (2017).
[3] Ultrafast laser induced local magnetization dynamics in heusler compounds, P. Elliott, T. Mueller, J.K. Dewhurst, S. Sharma, and E.K.U. Gross, Sci Rep 6, 38911 (2016).
[4] Laser-induced intersite spin transfer, J.K. Dewhurst, P. Elliott, S. Shallcross, E.K.U.
Gross, and S. Sharma, Nano Lett. 18, 1842 (2018).