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Spatiotemporal migration of antiferromagnetic domain walls in Sr2IrO4

Ian Robinson1,2, David Yang1, Ross Harder3, Dina Sheyfer3, Longlong Wu1,4, Jack Griffiths1, Emil Bozin1,5, Mark P. M. Dean1, Jialun Liu2 et al.

Hengdi Zhao6, Gang Cao6, Angel Rodriguez-Fernandez7, Jan-Etienne Pudell7, Roman Shayduk7, James Wrigley7, Alexey Zozulya7, Rustam Rysov7, Aliaksandr Leonau7,8, Ulrike Boesenberg7, Joerg Hallmann7, and Anders Madsen7

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Phys. Rev. B 113, L220410 – Published 24 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/f939-clb5

Abstract

By laser pump-probe time-resolved coherent magnetic x-ray diffraction imaging, we have measured the migration velocity of antiferromagnetic domain walls in the Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 at 100 K. Coherent diffraction patterns, recorded at the 106 pure-magnetic Bragg peak, showed fringes, which responded distinctly to the excitation laser. These patterns could not be inverted with current phasing algorithms, but could be modeled as four domains with phase shifts consistent with the antiferromagnetic structure. During the laser-induced demagnetization, we observed these domains and their domain walls moving at 3×106m/s, significantly faster than acoustic velocities. This is understood to arise from a purely electronic spin contribution to the magnetic structure without any role for coupling to the crystal lattice.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, L220410– Published 24 June, 2026
  • Received 10 November 2025
  • Revised 12 March 2026
  • Accepted 5 June 2026
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