Optical Diode Effect at Spin-Wave Excitations of the Room-Temperature Multiferroic BiFeO3

I. Kézsmárki, U. Nagel, S. Bordács, R. S. Fishman, J. H. Lee, Hee Taek Yi, S.-W. Cheong, and T. Rõõm
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 127203 – Published 15 September 2015
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Abstract

Multiferroics permit the magnetic control of the electric polarization and the electric control of the magnetization. These static magnetoelectric (ME) effects are of enormous interest: The ability to read and write a magnetic state current-free by an electric voltage would provide a huge technological advantage. Dynamic or optical ME effects are equally interesting, because they give rise to unidirectional light propagation as recently observed in low-temperature multiferroics. This phenomenon, if realized at room temperature, would allow the development of optical diodes which transmit unpolarized light in one, but not in the opposite, direction. Here, we report strong unidirectional transmission in the room-temperature multiferroic BiFeO3 over the gigahertz-terahertz frequency range. The supporting theory attributes the observed unidirectional transmission to the spin-current-driven dynamic ME effect. These findings are an important step toward the realization of optical diodes, supplemented by the ability to switch the transmission direction with a magnetic or electric field.

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  • Received 20 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.127203

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

I. Kézsmárki1, U. Nagel2, S. Bordács1, R. S. Fishman3, J. H. Lee3, Hee Taek Yi4, S.-W. Cheong4, and T. Rõõm2

  • 1Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and MTA-BME Lendület Magneto-optical Spectroscopy Research Group, 1111 Budapest, Hungary
  • 2National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia
  • 3Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
  • 4Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 12 — 18 September 2015

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