Project description
Ultrafast magnetic phenomena leveraging ‘twisted’ plasmons
The development of ultrafast opto-magnetic applications in spintronics requires the coherent control of nanoscale magnetic bits. Twisted electromagnetic fields (produced by light with orbital angular momentum) can enable better control of electron motion and spin than circularly polarised light. However, whether twisted light can act on magnetism is an open question. Investigation requires a way to generate nanoscale electromagnetic fields carrying a high density of orbital angular momentum. The ERC-funded MagneticTWIST project aims to enable a coherent transfer of orbital angular momentum to the electronic spin and orbital degrees of freedom at the nanoscale using ‘twisted’ plasmons polaritons carrying orbital angular momentum and driven by femtosecond light pulses.
Objective
Harnessing twisted light (light carrying orbital angular momentum) on the nanoscale, and its interaction with magnetism, can revolutionize how we encode and process information. In fact, twisted electromagnetic fields can enable a superior control over the motion of the electrons and their spin compared to circularly polarized light. Yet, a clear demonstration that it is possible to act on magnetism using twisted light has still to be established. The main challenge is to find an approach to generate nanoscale electromagnetic fields carrying orbital angular momentum, which can be exploited to drive magnetism with extreme (few nanometers) spatial resolution, at the intrinsic time scale (few tens of femtoseconds) of the fundamental magnetic interactions (exchange and spin-orbit coupling) responsible for the magnetic order in matter. This feature is essential for the development of ultrafast opto-magnetic applications in spintronics, where a major goal is the coherent control of nanoscale magnetic bits. In MagneticTWIST I tackle this challenge and propose the way towards nanoscale control of ultrafast magnetic phenomena by exploiting twisted plasmons, that is plasmon polaritons (light-induced coherent collective oscillations of free electrons in metals) carrying orbital angular momentum and driven by femtosecond light pulses. This strategy will enable a coherent transfer of orbital angular momentum to the electronic spin and orbital degrees of freedom at the nanoscale. In this way, I will disclose new types of light-matter interactions and new kinds of opto-magnetic effects, with a ground-breaking impact on ultrafast magnetism, spintronics and light-driven electronics. Beyond this, MagneticTWIST will open a radically new path enabling to store and process an infinite amount of information on different spatiotemporal levels, impacting also other research fields such as cryptography, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicsoptoelectronics
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicsspintronicsmolecular spintronics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencescondensed matter physicssolid-state physics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsnonlinear optics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsspectroscopy
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
901 87 Umea
Sweden