Ultrafast optical control of ferroelectric polarization via resonant magnon excitation

ORAL

Abstract

Optical control of order parameters in condensed matter is of great interest in fundamental as well as applied science. In the context of ferroic materials, controlling ferroic degrees of freedom using ultrafast optical pulses could pave the way towards ultrafast switches and devices that work on femtosecond timescales. Attempts to achieve this by direct excitation of ferroic modes have not been completely successful, necessitating other novel strategies.
In this work, we demonstrate a transient suppression of the ferroelectric polarization in the prototypical multiferroic BiFeO3 by resonant excitation of a magnon coupled to the ferroelectric mode. Ultrafast pump-probe measurements using a second harmonic generation probe reveal that the suppression and recovery of the polarization occur at a femtosecond timescale. Furthermore, we observe that the zero polarization transient state can be stabilized by tuning the domain structure of the lattice, increasing its lifetime by one order of magnitude.

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Presenters

  • Haricharan Padmanabhan

    Pennsylvania State University

Authors

  • Haricharan Padmanabhan

    Pennsylvania State University

  • Yakun Yuan

    Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania State University

  • Alexander Melville

    MIT Lincoln Lab, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA 02421, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Darrell G. Schlom

    Cornell University, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University, Materials Science & Engineering, Cornell University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,, Cornell University, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Cornell

  • Venkatraman Gopalan

    Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Physics, Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science and Engineering Department, Pennsylvania State University