arXiv subjects

Karel Carva

Publications and source records attributed to Karel Carva.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Theory of Out-of-Equilibrium Ultrafast Relaxation Dynamics in Metals

Ultrafast laser excitation of a metal causes correlated, highly nonequilibrium dynamics of electronic and ionic degrees of freedom, which are however only poorly captured by the widely-used two-temperature model. Here we develop an out-of-equilibrium theory that captures the full dynamic evolution of the electronic and phononic populations and provides a microscopic description of the transfer of energy delivered optically into electrons to the lattice. All essential nonequilibrium energy processes, such as electron-phonon and phonon-phonon interactions are taken into account. Moreover, as all required quantities are obtained from first-principles calculations, the model gives an exact description of the relaxation dynamics without the need for fitted parameters. We apply the model to FePt and show that the detailed relaxation is out-of-equilibrium for picoseconds.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Ab Initio Theory of Coherent Laser-Induced Magnetization in Metals

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 non-linear 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 (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.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Ab initio investigation of light-induced relativistic spin-flip effects in magneto-optics

Excitation of a metallic ferromagnet such as Ni with an intensive femtosecond laser pulse causes an ultrafast demagnetization within approximately 300 fs. It was proposed that the ultrafast demagnetization measured in femtosecond magneto-optical experiments could be due to relativistic light-induced processes. We perform an ab initio investigation of the influence of relativistic effects on the magneto-optical response of Ni. To this end, we develop, first, a response theory formulation of the additional appearing ultra-relativistic terms in the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformed Dirac Hamiltonian due to the electromagnetic field, and, second, compute the influence of relativistic light-induced spin-flip transitions on the magneto-optics. Our ab initio calculations of relativistic spin-flip optical excitations predict that these can give only a very small contribution ($\leq 0.1$%) to the laser-induced magnetization change in Ni.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Magnetic anisotropy energy of disordered tetragonal Fe-Co systems from ab initio alloy theory

We present results of systematic fully relativistic first-principles calculations of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of a disordered and partially ordered tetragonal Fe-Co alloy using the coherent potential approximation (CPA). This alloy has recently become a promising system for thin ferromagnetic films with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We find that existing theoretical approaches to homogeneous random bulk Fe-Co alloys, based on a simple virtual crystal approximation (VCA), overestimate the maximum MAE values obtained in the CPA by a factor of four. This pronounced difference is ascribed to the strong disorder in the minority spin channel of real alloys, which is neglected in the VCA and which leads to a broadening of the d-like eigenstates at the Fermi energy and to the reduction of the MAE. The ordered Fe-Co alloys with a maximum L1_0-like atomic long-range order can exhibit high values of the MAE, which, however, get dramatically reduced by small perturbations of the perfect order.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Super-Diffusive Spin-Transport as a Mechanism of Ultrafast Demagnetization

We propose a semi-classical model for femtosecond-laser induced demagnetization due to spin-polarized excited electron diffusion in the super-diffusive regime. Our approach treats the finite elapsed time and transport in space between multiple electronic collisions exactly, as well as the presence of several metal films in the sample. Solving the derived transport equation numerically we show that this mechanism accounts for the experimentally observed demagnetization within 200fs in Ni, without the need to invoke any angular momentum dissipation channel.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Conductivity engineering of graphene by defect formation

Transport measurements have revealed several exotic electronic properties of graphene. The possibility to influence the electronic structure and hence control the conductivity by adsorption or doping with adatoms is crucial in view of electronics applications. Here, we show that in contrast to expectation, the conductivity of graphene increases with increasing concentration of vacancy defects, by more than one order of magnitude. We obtain a pronounced enhancement of the conductivity after insertion of defects by both quantum mechanical transport calculations as well as experimental studies of carbon nano-sheets. Our finding is attributed to the defect induced mid-gap states, which create a region exhibiting metallic behavior around the vacancy defects. The modification of the conductivity of graphene by the implementation of stable defects is crucial for the creation of electronic junctions in graphene-based electronics devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗