Agarwal, P., Huang, L., Ter Lim, S., & Singh, R. (2022). Electric-field control of nonlinear THz spintronic emitters. Nature Communications, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31789-0
Abstract:
AbstractEnergy-efficient spintronic technology holds tremendous potential for the design of next-generation processors to operate at terahertz frequencies. Femtosecond photoexcitation of spintronic materials generates sub-picosecond spin currents and emission of terahertz radiation with broad bandwidth. However, terahertz spintronic emitters lack an active material platform for electric-field control. Here, we demonstrate a nonlinear electric-field control of terahertz spin current-based emitters using a single crystal piezoelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN–PT) that endows artificial magnetoelectric coupling onto a spintronic terahertz emitter and provides 270% modulation of the terahertz field at remnant magnetization. The nonlinear electric-field control of the spins occurs due to the strain-induced change in magnetic energy of the ferromagnet thin-film. Results also reveal a robust and repeatable switching of the phase of the terahertz spin current. Electric-field control of terahertz spintronic emitters with multiferroics and strain engineering offers opportunities for the on-chip realization of tunable energy-efficient spintronic-photonic integrated platforms.
License type:
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the ASTAR - AME Programmatic Fund
Grant Reference no. : A18A6b0057
This research / project is supported by the National Research Foundation - Competitive Research Programme
Grant Reference no. : CRP23-2019-0005