Femtosecond dynamics of the collinear-to-spiral antiferromagnetic phase transition in CuO

S. L. Johnson, R. A. De Souza, U. Staub, P. Beaud, E. Möhr-Vorobeva, G. Ingold, A. Caviezel, V. Scagnoli, W. F. Schlotter, J. J. Turner, O. Krupin, W. S. Lee, Y. D. Chuang, L. Patthey, R. G. Moore, D. Lu, M. Yi, P. S. Kirchmann, M. Trigo, P. DenesD. Doering, Z. Hussain, Z. X. Shen, D. Prabhakaran, A. T. Boothroyd

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Abstract

We report on the ultrafast dynamics of magnetic order in a single crystal of CuO at a temperature of 207 K in response to strong optical excitation using femtosecond resonant x-ray diffraction. In the experiment, a femtosecond laser pulse induces a sudden, nonequilibrium increase in magnetic disorder. After a short delay ranging from 400 fs to 2 ps, we observe changes in the relative intensity of the magnetic ordering diffraction peaks that indicate a shift from a collinear commensurate phase to a spiral incommensurate phase. These results indicate that the ultimate speed for this antiferromagnetic reorientation transition in CuO is limited by the long-wavelength magnetic excitation connecting the two phases.

Original languageEnglish
Article number037203
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume108
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 19 2012
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilEP/J012912/1, EP/H033939/1
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung124496

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