arXiv subjects

Johan H. Mentink

Publications and source records attributed to Johan H. Mentink.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Robust scenario for the generation of non-equilibrium topological fluctuation states

The recently discovered topological fluctuation state provides a fascinating new perspective on the ultrafast emergence of topology in condensed matter systems. However, rather little is known about the physics of this state and the origin of the topological fluctuations. Using time-resolved small-angle x-ray scattering, we observe that topological fluctuation states appear after laser excitation even if the final state does not host stable skyrmions. Simulations support these findings and reveal that the fluctuations originate from the competition between spontaneous nucleation and decay of skyrmions, consistent with Arrhenius-like activation over a potential barrier. Stable skyrmions can freeze out of such fluctuations when the effective temperature of the system relaxes faster than the decay time of the skyrmions. Our results reveal a robust scenario for the generation of topological fluctuation states, potentially enabling their study in a wide variety of magnetic systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Brownian reservoir computing realized using geometrically confined skyrmions

Reservoir computing (RC) has been considered as one of the key computational principles beyond von-Neumann computing. Magnetic skyrmions, topological particle-like spin textures in magnetic films are particularly promising for implementing RC, since they respond strongly nonlinear to external stimuli and feature inherent multiscale dynamics. However, despite several theoretical proposals that exist for skyrmion reservoir computing, experimental realizations have been elusive until now. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a conceptually new approach to skyrmion RC that leverages the thermally activated diffusive motion of skyrmions. By confining the electrically gated and thermal skyrmion motion, we find that already a single skyrmion in a confined geometry suffices to realize non-linearly separable functions, which we demonstrate for the XOR gate along with all other Boolean logic gate operations. Besides this universality, the reservoir computing concept ensures low training costs and ultra-low power operation with current densities orders of magnitude smaller than those used in existing spintronic reservoir computing demonstrations. Our proposed concept can be readily extended by linking multiple confined geometries and/or by including more skyrmions in the reservoir, suggesting high potential for scalable and low-energy reservoir computing.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Role of stochastic noise and generalization error in the time propagation of neural-network quantum states

Neural-network quantum states (NQS) have been shown to be a suitable variational ansatz to simulate out-of-equilibrium dynamics in two-dimensional systems using time-dependent variational Monte Carlo (t-VMC). In particular, stable and accurate time propagation over long time scales has been observed in the square-lattice Heisenberg model using the Restricted Boltzmann machine architecture. However, achieving similar performance in other systems has proven to be more challenging. In this article, we focus on the two-leg Heisenberg ladder driven out of equilibrium by a pulsed excitation as a benchmark system. We demonstrate that unmitigated noise is strongly amplified by the nonlinear equations of motion for the network parameters, which causes numerical instabilities in the time evolution. As a consequence, the achievable accuracy of the simulated dynamics is a result of the interplay between network expressiveness and measures required to remedy these instabilities. We show that stability can be greatly improved by appropriate choice of regularization. This is particularly useful as tuning of the regularization typically imposes no additional computational cost. Inspired by machine learning practice, we propose a validation-set based diagnostic tool to help determining optimal regularization hyperparameters for t-VMC based propagation schemes. For our benchmark, we show that stable and accurate time propagation can be achieved in regimes of sufficiently regularized variational dynamics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Artificial neural network states for non-additive systems

Methods inspired from machine learning have recently attracted great interest in the computational study of quantum many-particle systems. So far, however, it has proven challenging to deal with microscopic models in which the total number of particles is not conserved. To address this issue, we propose a new variant of neural network states, which we term neural coherent states. Taking the Fröhlich impurity model as a case study, we show that neural coherent states can learn the ground state of non-additive systems very well. In particular, we observe substantial improvement over the standard coherent state estimates in the most challenging intermediate coupling regime. Our approach is generic and does not assume specific details of the system, suggesting wide applications.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Designing spin and orbital exchange Hamiltonians with ultrashort electric field transients

We demonstrate how electric fields with arbitrary time profile can be used to control the time-dependent parameters of spin and orbital exchange Hamiltonians. Analytic expressions for the exchange constants are derived from a time-dependent Schrieffer-Wolff transformation, and the validity of the resulting effective Hamiltonian is verified for the case of a quarter-filled two-orbital Hubbard model, by comparing to the results of a full nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory simulation. The ability to manipulate Hamiltonians with arbitrary time-dependent fields, beyond the paradigm of Floquet engineering, opens the possibility to control intertwined spin and orbital order using laser or THz pulses which are tailored to minimize electronic excitations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Ultrafast cooling and heating scenarios for the laser induced phase transition in CuO

The multiferroic compound CuO exhibits low temperature magnetic properties similar to antiferromagnetic iron oxides, while the electronic properties have much more in common with the high $T_c$ cuprate superconductors. This suggests novel possibilities for the ultrafast optical excitation of magnetism. On the basis on atomistic spin dynamics simulations, we study the effect of phonon-assisted multimagnon absorption and photodoping on the spin dynamics in the vicinity of the first-order phase transition from collinear to spin-spiral magnetic order. Similar as in recent experiments, we find that for both excitations the phase transition can proceed on the picosecond timescale. Interestingly, however, these excitation mechanisms display very distinct dynamics. Following photodoping, the spin system first cools down on sub-ps timescales, which we explain as an ultrafast magnetocaloric effect. Opposed to this, following phonon-assisted multimagnon excitation the spin systems rapidly heats up and subsequently evolves to the noncollinear phase even under the influence of isotropic exchange interactions alone.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

All-thermal switching of amorphous Gd-Fe alloys: analysis of structural properties and magnetization dynamics

In recent years, there has been an intense interest in understanding the microscopic mechanism of thermally induced magnetization switching driven by a femtosecond laser pulse. Most of the effort has been dedicated to periodic crystalline structures while the amorphous counterparts have been less studied. By using a multiscale approach, i.e. first-principles density functional theory combined with atomistic spin dynamics, we report here on the very intricate structural and magnetic nature of amorphous Gd-Fe alloys for a wide range of Gd and Fe atomic concentrations at the nanoscale level. Both structural and dynamical properties of Gd-Fe alloys reported in this work are in good agreement with previous experiments. We calculated the dynamic behavior of homogeneous and inhomogeneous amorphous Gd-Fe alloys and their response under the influence of a femtosecond laser pulse. In the homogeneous sample, the Fe sublattice switches its magnetization before the Gd one. However, the temporal sequence of the switching of the two sublattices is reversed in the inhomogeneous sample. We propose a possible explanation based on a mechanism driven by a combination of the Dzyaloshiskii-Moriya interaction and exchange frustration, modeled by an antiferromagnetic second-neighbour exchange interaction between Gd atoms in the Gd-rich region. We also report on the influence of laser fluence and damping effects in the all-thermal switching.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗