Laser-induced Creation of antiferromagnetic 180-degree domains in NiO/Pt bilayers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the optical creation and control of antiferromagnetic domains in NiO/Pt bilayers using laser pulses, revealing a thermal switching mechanism and polarization-independent domain formation, advancing all-optical antiferromagnetic switching.

Contribution

It introduces a method to optically induce and manipulate antiferromagnetic domains in NiO/Pt heterostructures, showing reversible, polarization-independent domain creation via laser irradiation.

Findings

Laser pulses can create antiferromagnetic domains in NiO/Pt bilayers.

The domain creation mechanism is thermally induced and reversible.

Domain formation is independent of laser polarization.

Abstract

We demonstrate how the antiferromagnetic order in heterostructures of NiO/Pt thin films can be modified by optical pulses. We irradiate our samples with laser light and identify an optically induced creation of antiferromagnetic domains by imaging the created domain structure utilizing the X-ray magnetic linear dichroism effect. We study the effect of different laser polarizations on the domain formation and identify a polarization-independent creation of 180{\deg} domain walls and domains with 180{\deg} different N\'eel vector orientation. By varying the irradiation parameters, we determine the switching mechanism to be thermally induced and demonstrate the reversibility. We thus demonstrate experimentally the possibility to optically create antiferromagnetic domains, an important step towards future functionalization of all optical switching mechanisms in antiferromagnets.