Ultrafast thermo-optical control of spins in a 2D van der Waals semiconductor

Maciej Da̧browski (), Sumit Haldar, Safe Khan, Paul S. Keatley, Dimitros Sagkovits, Zekun Xue, Charlie Freeman, Ivan Verzhbitskiy, Theodor Griepe, Unai Atxitia, Goki Eda, Hidekazu Kurebayashi, Elton J. G. Santos () and Robert J. Hicken
Additional contact information
Maciej Da̧browski: University of Exeter
Sumit Haldar: School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh
Safe Khan: University College London
Paul S. Keatley: University of Exeter
Dimitros Sagkovits: University College London
Zekun Xue: University College London
Charlie Freeman: University College London
Ivan Verzhbitskiy: National University of Singapore
Theodor Griepe: CSIC, Cantoblanco
Unai Atxitia: CSIC, Cantoblanco
Goki Eda: National University of Singapore
Hidekazu Kurebayashi: University College London
Elton J. G. Santos: School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh
Robert J. Hicken: University of Exeter

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Laser pulses provide one of the fastest means of manipulating electron spins in magnetic compounds and pave the way to ultrafast operation within magnetic recording, quantum computation and spintronics. However, effective management of the heat deposited during optical excitation is an open challenge. Layered two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials possess unique thermal properties due to the highly anisotropic nature of their chemical bonding. Here we show how to control the rate of heat flow, and hence the magnetization dynamics, induced by an ultrafast laser pulse within the 2D ferromagnet Cr2Ge2Te6. Using time-resolved beam-scanning magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy and microscopic spin modelling calculations, we show that by reducing the thickness of the magnetic layers, an enhancement of the heat dissipation rate into the adjacent substrate leads to a substantial reduction in the timescale for magnetization recovery from several nanoseconds down to a few hundred picoseconds. Finally, we demonstrate how the low thermal conductivity across vdW layers may be used to obtain magnetic domain memory behaviour, even after exposure to intense laser pulses. Our findings reveal the distinctive role of vdW magnets in the ultrafast control of heat conduction, spin dynamics and non-volatile memory.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58065-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58065-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58065-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().