Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 9, 2025

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Published on: March 24, 2019
Terahertz light-driven coupling of antiferromagnetic spins to lattice
Evgeny A Mashkovich1,2, Kirill A Grishunin1, Roman M Dubrovin3
1Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Abstract:
Understanding spin-lattice coupling represents a key challenge in modern condensed matter physics, with crucial importance and implications for ultrafast and two-dimensional magnetism. The efficiency of angular momentum and energy transfer between spins and the lattice imposes fundamental speed limits on the ability to control spins in spintronics, magnonics, and magnetic data storage. We report on an efficient nonlinear mechanism of spin-lattice coupling driven by terahertz light pulses. A nearly single-cycle terahertz pulse resonantly interacts with a coherent magnonic state in the antiferromagnet cobalt difluoride (CoF2) and excites the Raman-active terahertz phonon. The results reveal the distinctive functionality of antiferromagnets that allows ultrafast spin-lattice coupling using light.
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Magnetic Resonance
Ferromagnetism
NMR Spectroscopy: Spin–Spin Coupling
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
Spin–Spin Coupling: Two-Bond Coupling (Geminal Coupling)
The central atom need not be NMR-active because its electrons are affected by the electron polarization of the spin-active atoms. However, spin information is transmitted less effectively than in one-bond coupling, and 2J values are usually weaker than 1J values. The energy of...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes

