Abstract
The inverse Faraday effect (IFE), where a static magnetization is induced by circularly polarized light, offers a promising route to ultrafast control of spin states. Here we study the IFE in Mott insulators using the Floquet theory. We find two distinct IFE behavior governed by the inversion symmetry. In the Mott insulators with inversion symmetry, we find that the effective magnetic field induced by the IFE couples ferromagnetically to the neighboring spins. While for the Mott insulators without inversion symmetry, the effective magnetic field due to IFE couples antiferromagnetically to the neighboring spins. We apply the theory to the spin-orbit coupled single- and multiorbital Hubbard model that is relevant for the Kitaev quantum spin liquid material and demonstrate that the magnetic interactions can be tuned by light.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | L180413 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue number | 18 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 1 2022 |
Funding
Acknowledgments. We thank Avadh Saxena, Alexander V. Balatsky, and Dieter Vollhardt for providing important feedback while writing this paper and thank Nicholas Sirica, Rohit Prasankumar, Sang-Wook Cheong, and Jianxin Zhu for the helpful discussions. This work was carried out under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract No. 89233218CNA000001 through the LDRD Program. S.Z.L. was also supported by the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, Condensed Matter Theory Program.