arXiv subjects

D. A. Reiss

Publications and source records attributed to D. A. Reiss.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Ultrafast demagnetization of iron induced by optical vs terahertz pulses

We study ultrafast magnetization quenching of ferromagnetic iron following excitation by an optical vs a terahertz pump pulse. While the optical pump (photon energy of 3.1 eV) induces a strongly nonthermal electron distribution, terahertz excitation (~4 meV) results in a quasi-thermal perturbation of the electron population. The pump-induced spin and electron dynamics are interrogated by the magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE). A deconvolution procedure allows us to push the time resolution down to 130 fs, even though the driving terahertz pulse is more than 0.5 ps long. Remarkably, the MOKE signals exhibit an almost identical time evolution for both optical and terahertz pump pulses, despite the three orders of magnitude different number of excited electrons. We are able to quantitatively explain our results using a model based on quasi-elastic spin-flip scattering. It shows that in the small-perturbation limit, the rate of demagnetization of a metallic ferromagnet is proportional to the excess energy of the electrons, independent of the precise shape of their distribution. Our results reveal that the dynamics of ultrafast demagnetization and of the closely related terahertz spin transport do not depend on the pump photon energy.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Laser-induced terahertz spin transport in magnetic nanostructures arises from the same force as ultrafast demagnetization

Laser-induced terahertz spin transport (TST) and ultrafast demagnetization (UDM) are central but so far disconnected phenomena in femtomagnetism and terahertz spintronics. Here, we use broadband terahertz emission spectroscopy to reliably measure both processes in one setup. We find that the rate of UDM of a single ferromagnetic metal film F has the same time evolution as the flux of TST from F into an adjacent normal-metal layer N. This remarkable agreement shows that UDM and TST are driven by the same force, which is fully determined by the state of the ferromagnet. An analytical model consistently and quantitatively explains our observations. It reveals that both UDM in F and TST in the F|N stack arise from a generalized spin voltage, which is defined for arbitrary, nonthermal electron distributions. We also conclude that contributions due to a possible temperature difference between F and N are minor and that the spin-current amplitude can, in principle, be increased by one order of magnitude. In general, our findings allow one to apply the vast knowledge of UDM to TST, thereby opening up new pathways toward large-amplitude terahertz spin currents and, thus, energy-efficient ultrafast spintronic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Quantum robustness of fracton phases

The quantum robustness of fracton phases is investigated by studying the influence of quantum fluctuations on the X-Cube model and Haah's code, which realize a type-I and type-II fracton phase, respectively. To this end a finite uniform magnetic field is applied to induce quantum fluctuations in the fracton phase resulting in zero-temperature phase transitions between fracton phases and polarized phases. Using high-order series expansions and a variational approach, all phase transitions are classified as strongly first order, which turns out to be a consequence of the (partial) immobility of fracton excitations. Indeed, single fractons as well as few-fracton composites can hardly lower their excitation energy by delocalization due to the intriguing properties of fracton phases, as demonstrated in this work explicitly in terms of fracton quasi-particles.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Quantum robustness and phase transitions of the 3D Toric Code in a field

We study the robustness of 3D intrinsic topogical order under external perturbations by investigating the paradigmatic microscopic model, the 3D toric code in an external magnetic field. Exact dualities as well as variational calculations reveal a ground-state phase diagram with first and second-order quantum phase transitions. The variational approach can be applied without further approximations only for certain field directions. In the general field case, an approximative scheme based on an expansion of the variational energy in orders of the variational parameters is developed. For the breakdown of the 3D intrinsic topological order, it is found that the (im-)mobility of the quasiparticle excitations is crucial in contrast to their fractional statistics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Quantum phase transitions to topological Haldane phases in spin-one chains studied by linked-cluster expansions

We use linked-cluster expansions to analyze the quantum phase transitions between symmetry unbroken trivial and topological Haldane phases in two different spin-one chains. The first model is the spin-one Heisenberg chain in the presence of a single-ion anisotropy while the second one is the dimerized spin-one Heisenberg chain. For both models we determine the ground-state energy and the one-particle gap inside the non-topological phase as a high-order series using perturbative continuous unitary transformations. Extrapolations of the gap series are applied to locate the quantum critical point and to extract the associated critical exponent. We find that this approach works unsatisfactory for the anisotropic chain, since the quality of the extrapolation appears insufficient due to the large correlation length exponent. In contrast, extrapolation schemes display very good convergence for the gap closing in the case of the dimerized spin-one Heisenberg chain.

cond-mat.str-el↗