No Arabic abstract
We report on the experimental evidence of magnetic helicoidal dichroism, observed in the interaction of an extreme ultraviolet vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum with a magnetic vortex. Numerical simulations based on classical electromagnetic theory show that this dichroism is based on the interference of light modes with different orbital angular momenta, which are populated after the interaction between the light phase chirality and the magnetic topology. This observation gives insight into the interplay between orbital angular momentum and magnetism, and sets the framework for the development of new analytical tools to investigate ultrafast magnetization dynamics.
Identifying and imaging spin textures of ever more complex magnetic structures has become a major challenge in the past decade, especially at ultrashort timescales. Most of current approaches are based on the analysis of their polarization and magnetization-dependent reflectivities. Based on our joint publication XXX XX XXXXXX, we introduce a different concept, centered on the coupling of magnetic structures with light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). Upon reflection by a magnetic vortex, an incoming beam with a unique value $ell$ of OAM gets enriched in the neighboring OAM modes $ellpm 1$. It results in anisotropic far-field images, which are identified as a Magnetic Helicoidal Dichroism (MHD) signal. Their analysis allow to retrieve the complex magneto-optical constants with excellent precision. This method, which does not require any polarization-resolved analysis, is promising for a quick identification of spin textures, including with attosecond to femtosecond time resolutions.
We present the classical electromagnetic theory framework of reflection of a light beam carrying Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) by an in-plane magnetic structure with generic symmetry. Depending on the magnetization symmetry, we find a change in the OAM content of the reflected beam due to magneto-optic interaction and an asymmetric far-field intensity profile. This leads to three types of Magnetic Helicoidal Dichroism (MHD), observed when switching the OAM of the incoming beam, the magnetization sign, or both. In cases of sufficient symmetries, we establish analytical formulas which link an experimentally accessible MHD signal up to $10%$ to the Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect (MOKE) constants. Magnetic vortices are particularly enlightening and promising targets, for which we explore the implications of our theory in the joint publication XX XXX XXXXXX.
Circularly-polarized extreme UV and X-ray radiation provides valuable access to the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of materials. To date, this capability was available only at large-scale X-ray facilities such as synchrotrons. Here we demonstrate the first bright, phase-matched, extreme UV circularly-polarized high harmonics and use this new light source for magnetic circular dichroism measurements at the M-shell absorption edges of Co. We show that phase matching of circularly-polarized harmonics is unique and robust, producing a photon flux comparable to the linearly polarized high harmonic sources that have been used very successfully for ultrafast element-selective magneto-optic experiments. This work thus represents a critical advance that makes possible element-specific imaging and spectroscopy of multiple elements simultaneously in magnetic and other chiral media with very high spatial and temporal resolution, using tabletop-scale setups.
Extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) light is notoriously difficult to control due to its strong interaction cross-section with media. We demonstrate a method to overcome this problem by using Opto-Optical Modulation guided by a geometrical model to shape XUV light. A bell-shaped infrared light pulse is shown to imprint a trace of its intensity profile onto the XUV light in the far-field, such that a change in the intensity profile of the infrared pulse leads to a change in the shape of the far-field XUV light. The geometrical model assists the user in predicting the effect of a specific intensity profile of the infrared pulse, thus enabling a deterministic process.
The lack of available table-top extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sources with high enough fluxes and coherence properties have limited the availability of nonlinear XUV and x-ray spectroscopies to free electron lasers (FEL). Here, we demonstrate second harmonic generation (SHG) on a table-top XUV source for the first time by observing SHG at the Ti M2,3-edge with a high harmonic seeded soft x-ray laser (HHG-SXRL) [1,2]. Further, this experiment represents the first SHG experiment in the XUV. First-principles electronic structure calculations are used to confirm the surface specificity and resonant enhancement of the SHG signal. The realization of XUV-SHG on a table-top source with femtosecond temporal resolution opens up tremendous opportunities for the study of element-specific dynamics in multi-component systems where surface, interfacial, and bulk-phase asymmetries play a driving role in smaller-scale labs as opposed to FELs.