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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Light-induced magnetization driven by interorbital charge motion in the spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator α−RuCl3

T. Amano1, Y. Kawakami1, H. Itoh1, K. Konno1, Y. Hasegawa1, T. Aoyama1, Y. Imai1, K. Ohgushi1, Y. Takeuchi1 et al.

Y. Wakabayashi1, K. Goto2, Y. Nakamura2, H. Kishida2, K. Yonemitsu3, and S. Iwai1,*

  • 1Department of Physics, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
  • 2Department of Applied Physics, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
  • 3Department of Physics, Chuo University, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan

  • *s-iwai@tohoku.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032032 – Published 19 August, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L032032

Abstract

In a honeycomb-lattice spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator α−RuCl3, ultrafast magnetization is induced by circularly polarized excitation below the Mott gap. Photocarriers play an important role, which are generated by turning down the synergy of the onsite Coulomb interaction and the spin-orbit interaction realizing the insulator state. An ultrafast 6 fs measurement of photocarrier dynamics and a quantum mechanical analysis clarify the mechanism, according to which the magnetization emerges from a coherent charge motion between different t2g orbitals (dyz−dxz−dxy) of Ru3+ ions. This ultrafast magnetization is weakened in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase, which is opposite to the general tendency that the inverse Faraday effect is larger in AFM compounds than in paramagnetic ones. This temperature dependence indicates that the interorbital charge motion is affected by pseudospin rotational symmetry breaking in the AFM phase.

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References (50)

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032032– Published 19 August, 2022
  • Received 1 November 2021
  • Revised 10 June 2022
  • Accepted 8 July 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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