Ultrafast Magneto-Plasmonic Effects in Ferrimagnetic Nanomaterials

该项目由材料研究部的电子与光子材料（EPM）和凝聚态物理（CMP）项目共同资助。非技术描述：该项目更广泛的意义在于新兴的大数据时代。该研究旨在探索一个新的超快磁开关领域，可以改善数据存储，检索和处理。超高速交换有可能使数据存储介质具有前所未有的性能。该项目涉及具有不同物理、材料科学、光学和纳米技术知识背景的研究人员，因此为研究生、本科生和K-12学生（包括妇女和少数民族）提供了一个高度跨学科的培训环境，并为他们提供了学习和共同工作的机会。这个项目在一个新兴的研究领域产生新的知识和教育未来的劳动力。技术描述：该项目的目标是在光学远场衍射极限以外的空间分辨率上研究电子、自旋和晶格的复杂相互作用。目标是在超快的时间尺度上理解和操纵纳米级磁性。这种操作是通过使用等离子体效应来实现纳米尺度的分辨率，否则由于衍射极限而无法实现，并且通过应用最先进的超快技术与飞秒激光器来实现超短时间尺度的磁化反转，这发生在铁磁性纳米材料中。项目范围处于亚铁磁性纳米材料超快全光磁化反转的前沿，融合了等离子体学和磁学两个科学领域。超高速等离子体磁性的基本物理是通过各种最先进的实验技术和纳米材料加工方法来探索的。

This project is jointly funded by the Electronic and Photonic Materials (EPM) and Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) Programs, both in the Division of Materials Research. Non-technical Description: The broader significance of this project is for the emerging Big Data era. The research is aimed to investigate a new field of ultrafast magnetism switching that could improve data storage, retrieval, and processing. The ultrafast switching has a potential to enable data storage media with unprecedented performance. The project involves researchers with different knowledge background of physics, materials science, optics and nanotechnology and thus provides a highly interdisciplinary training environment for graduate, undergraduate and K-12 students (including women and minorities) and the opportunities for them to learn and work together. This project generates new knowledge and educates future workforce in an emerging research area. Technical Description: The objective of the project is to study the complicated interactions of electron, spin and lattice for the spatial resolution beyond the optical far-field diffraction limit. The goals are to understand and manipulate the nanoscale magnetism at ultrafast time scales. Such manipulation is enabled by using plasmonic effects to achieve the nanometer scale resolution for otherwise not accessible due to the diffraction limit and by applying state-of-the-art ultrafast techniques with femtosecond lasers to achieve ultra-short temporal scale of magnetization reversal, which occurs in ferrimagnetic nanomaterials. The scope of the project is at the frontier of ultrafast all-optical magnetization reversal of ferrimagnetic nanomaterials, and merges two scientific areas: plasmonics and magnetism. The fundamental physics of ultra-fast plasmonic magnetism is explored via a variety of state-of-the-art experimental techniques and nanomaterial processing methods.