Ultrafast Magneto-Plasmonic Effects in Ferrimagnetic Nanomaterials

该项目由材料研究部的电子和光子材料(EPM)和凝聚态物质物理(CMP)计划联合资助。非技术描述：该项目的更广泛意义在于新兴的大数据时代。这项研究旨在探索一种新的超快磁开关领域，以提高数据的存储、检索和处理能力。超高速切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，从而为研究生、本科生和K-12学生(包括女性和少数族裔)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合作的机会。这个项目产生了新的知识，并在一个新兴的研究领域培养未来的劳动力。技术描述：该项目的目标是研究电子、自旋和晶格的复杂相互作用，以获得超出光学远场衍射极限的空间分辨率。我们的目标是在超快的时间尺度上理解和操纵纳米尺度的磁性。这种操纵是通过使用等离子体效应来达到纳米级的分辨率，否则由于衍射限制而无法达到的，并通过应用最先进的飞秒激光超快技术来实现超短时间尺度的磁化反转，这发生在亚铁磁性纳米材料中。该项目的范围是亚铁磁性纳米材料的超快全光磁化反转的前沿，并合并了等离子体和磁学两个科学领域。通过各种最先进的实验技术和纳米材料处理方法来探索超快等离子体磁的基本物理学。

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.