title: Ab Initio Theory of Coherent Laser-Induced Magnetization in Metals.
abstract: We present the first materials specific ab initio theory of the magnetization induced by circularly polarized laser light in metals. Our calculations are based on nonlinear density matrix theory and include the effect of absorption. We show that the induced magnetization, commonly referred to as inverse Faraday effect, is strongly materials and frequency dependent, and demonstrate the existence of both spin and orbital induced magnetizations which exhibit a surprisingly different behavior. We show that for nonmagnetic metals (such as Cu, Au, Pd, Pt) and antiferromagnetic metals the induced magnetization is antisymmetric in the light's helicity, whereas for ferromagnetic metals (Fe, Co, Ni, FePt) the imparted magnetization is only asymmetric in the helicity. We compute effective optomagnetic fields that correspond to the induced magnetizations and provide guidelines for achieving all-optical helicity-dependent switching.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berritta
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ritwik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mondal
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.|Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Ke Karlovu 5, CZ-12116 Prague 2, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Karel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Carva
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Oppeneer