• Accepted Paper

Terahertz switching of two-dimensional antiferromagnetic order

Chenyu Wang, En Wang, Yaxian Wang, and Sheng Meng

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 14 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kj1q-h9pw

Abstract

Identifying the transition pathway for ultrafast switching between distinct antiferromagnetic orders, while holding promise to realize unprecedentedly small and fast spin devices, remains largely unexplored. Herein, we show that rectifying structure with light can serve as a powerful tool to achieve non-thermal antiferromagnetic order switching in a monolayer antiferromagnet MnPSe3. By resolving the spin-phonon coupling strength, we identify a highly selective coupling of the magnetic order with a Raman-active Eg phonon. After resonantly pumping two degenerate infrared-active Eu modes, we obtain a new metastable out-of-equilibrium state holding shifted structure along Eg mode. Such lattice distortion offers a sustained nonthermal driving field to trigger an unreported phase switch from N'eel-type to zigzag-type antiferromagnetic order within the coherent phonon lifetime. By varying the pumping polarization and intensity, we provide a parameter regime for realistic light-driven magnetic phase transitions. Such ultrafast antiferromagnetism switch can be identified by pump-probe measurements of the order-parameter-like behavior in second harmonic generation signal or absorption spectrum.

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