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Light-Controlled Ultrafast Magnetic State Transition in Antiferromagnetic-Ferromagnetic van der Waals Heterostructures.

Shuo LiLiujiang ZhouThomas FrauenheimJunjie He
Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters (2022)
Manipulating spin in antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials has great potential in AFM opto-spintronics. Laser pulses can induce a transient ferromagnetic (FM) state in AFM metallic systems but have never been proven in two-dimensional (2D) AFM semiconductors and related van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures. Herein, using 2D vdW heterostructures of FM MnS 2 and AFM MXenes as prototypes, we investigated optically induced interlayer spin transfer dynamics based on real-time time-dependent density functional theory. We observed that laser pulses induce significant spin injection and interfacial atom-mediated spin transfer from MnS 2 to Cr 2 CCl 2 . In particular, we first demonstrated the transient FM state in semiconducting AFM-FM heterostructures during photoexcited processes. The proximity magnetism breaks the magnetic symmetry of Cr 2 CCl 2 in heterostructures. Our results provide a microscopic understanding of optically controlled interlayer spin dynamics in 2D magnetic heterostructures and open a new way to manipulate magnetic order in 2D materials for ultrafast opto-spintronics.
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