No Arabic abstract
Combining the technologies of quantum optics and magnonics, we find that the circularly polarized laser can dynamically realize the quasiequilibrium magnon Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). The Zeeman coupling between the laser and spins generates the optical Barnett field, and its direction is controllable by switching the laser chirality. We show that the optical Barnett field develops the total magnetization in insulating ferrimagnets with reversing the local magnetization, which leads to the quasiequilibrium magnon BEC. This laser-induced magnon BEC transition through optical Barnett effect, dubbed the optomagnonic Barnett effect, provides an access to coherent magnons in the high frequency regime of the order of terahertz. We also propose a realistic experimental setup to observe the optomagnonic Barnett effect using current device and measurement technologies as well as the laser chirping. The optomagnonic Barnett effect is a key ingredient for the application to ultrafast spin transport.
We study the laser control of magnon topological phases induced by the Aharonov-Casher effect in insulating antiferromagnets (AFs). Since the laser electric field can be considered as a time-periodic perturbation, we apply the Floquet theory and perform the inverse frequency expansion by focusing on the high frequency region. Using the obtained effective Floquet Hamiltonian, we study nonequilibrium magnon dynamics away from the adiabatic limit and its effect on topological phenomena. We show that a linearly polarized laser can generate helical edge magnon states and induce the magnonic spin Nernst effect, whereas a circularly polarized laser can generate chiral edge magnon states and induce the magnonic thermal Hall effect. In particular, in the latter, we find that the direction of the magnon chiral edge modes and the resulting thermal Hall effect can be controlled by the chirality of the circularly polarized laser through the change from the left-circular to the right-circular polarization. Our results thus provide a handle to control and design magnon topological properties in the insulating AF.
We have observed photoinduced negative optical conductivity, or gain, in the terahertz frequency range in a GaAs multiple-quantum-well structure in a strong perpendicular magnetic field at low temperatures. The gain is narrow-band: it appears as a sharp peak (linewidth $<$0.45 meV) whose frequency shifts with applied magnetic field. The gain has a circular-polarization selection rule: a strong line is observed for hole-cyclotron-resonance-active polarization. Furthermore, the gain appears only when the exciton $1s$ state is populated, which rules out intraexcitonic transitions to be its origin. Based on these observations, we propose a possible process in which the stimulated emission of a terahertz photon occurs while two free excitons scatter into one biexciton in an energy and angular-momentum conserving manner.
The light-matter interaction can be utilized to qualitatively alter physical properties of materials. Recent theoretical and experimental studies have explored this possibility of controlling matter by light based on driving many-body systems via strong classical electromagnetic radiation, leading to a time-dependent Hamiltonian for electronic or lattice degrees of freedom. To avoid inevitable heating, pump-probe setups with ultrashort laser pulses have so far been used to study transient light-induced modifications in materials. Here, we pursue yet another direction of controlling quantum matter by modifying quantum fluctuations of its electromagnetic environment. In contrast to earlier proposals on light-enhanced electron-electron interactions, we consider a dipolar quantum many-body system embedded in a cavity composed of metal mirrors, and formulate a theoretical framework to manipulate its equilibrium properties on the basis of quantum light-matter interaction. We analyze hybridization of different types of the fundamental excitations, including dipolar phonons, cavity photons, and plasmons in metal mirrors, arising from the cavity confinement in the regime of strong light-matter interaction. This hybridization qualitatively alters the nature of the collective excitations and can be used to selectively control energy-level structures in a wide range of platforms. Most notably, in quantum paraelectrics, we show that the cavity-induced softening of infrared optical phonons enhances the ferroelectric phase in comparison with the bulk materials. Our findings suggest an intriguing possibility of inducing a superradiant-type transition via the light-matter coupling without external pumping. We also discuss possible applications of the cavity-induced modifications in collective excitations to molecular materials and excitonic devices.
We present a model of a topological semimetal in three dimensions (3D) whose energy spectrum exhibits a nodal line acting as a vortex ring; this in turn is linked by a pseudospin structure akin to that of a smoke ring. Contrary to a Weyl point node spectrum, the vortex ring gives rise to skyrmionic pseudospin patterns in cuts on both sides of the nodal ring plane; this pattern covers the full Brillouin zone, thus leading to a new, `maximal, anomalous Hall effect in a 3D semimetal. Tuning a model parameter shrinks the vortex ring until it vanishes, giving way to a pair of Weyl nodes of opposite chirality. This establishes a connection between two distinct momentum-space topologies - that of a vortex ring (a circle of singularity) and a monopole-anti-monopole pair (two point singularities). We present the model both as a low-energy continuum and a two-band tight-binding lattice model. Its simplicity permits an analytical computation of its Landau level spectrum.
Microscopic imaging of local magnetic fields provides a window into the organizing principles of complex and technologically relevant condensed matter materials. However, a wide variety of intriguing strongly correlated and topologically nontrivial materials exhibit poorly understood phenomena outside the detection capability of state-of-the-art high-sensitivity, high-resolution scanning probe magnetometers. We introduce a quantum-noise-limited scanning probe magnetometer that can operate from room to cryogenic temperatures with unprecedented DC-field sensitivity and micron-scale resolution. The Scanning Quantum Cryogenic Atom Microscope (SQCRAMscope) employs a magnetically levitated atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), thereby providing immunity to conductive and blackbody radiative heating. It has a field sensitivity of 1.4 nT per resolution-limited point ($sim$2 $mu$m), or 6 nT/$sqrt{text{Hz}}$ per point at its duty cycle. Compared to point-by-point sensors, the long length of the BEC provides a naturally parallel measurement, allowing one to measure nearly one-hundred points with an effective field sensitivity of 600 pT$/sqrt{text{Hz}}$ for each point during the same time as a point-by-point scanner would measure these points sequentially. Moreover, it has a noise floor of 300 pT and provides nearly two orders of magnitude improvement in magnetic flux sensitivity (down to $10^{-6}$ $Phi_0/sqrt{text{Hz}}$) over previous atomic probe magnetometers capable of scanning near samples. These capabilities are, for the first time, carefully benchmarked by imaging magnetic fields arising from microfabricated wire patterns, in a system where samples may be scanned, cryogenically cooled, and easily exchanged. The SQCRAMscope will provide charge transport images at temperatures from room to 4 K in unconventional superconductors and topologically nontrivial materials.