title: Large-amplitude spin dynamics driven by a THz pulse in resonance with an electromagnon.
abstract: Multiferroics have attracted strong interest for potential applications where electric fields control magnetic order. The ultimate speed of control via magnetoelectric coupling, however, remains largely unexplored. Here, we report an experiment in which we drove spin dynamics in multiferroic TbMnO3 with an intense few-cycle terahertz (THz) light pulse tuned to resonance with an electromagnon, an electric-dipole active spin excitation. We observed the resulting spin motion using time-resolved resonant soft x-ray diffraction. Our results show that it is possible to directly manipulate atomic-scale magnetic structures with the electric field of light on a sub-picosecond time scale.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Quantum Electronics, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 16, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kubacka
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vicario
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Beaud
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grübel
authors.forename: S-W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Patthey
authors.forename: Y-D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Dakovski
authors.forename: W-S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Minitti
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schlotter
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Hauri
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Koohpayeh
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Scagnoli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ingold
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Staub