Browse Physics

Experiments demonstrate the possibility of engineering stable, nanometer-scale magnetic structures in thin magnetic films by firing laser pulses at them.

Optically switched magnetic domains are easier to control if the light source is circularly polarized.

Advances in a magneto-optical technique will allow researchers to better understand how to control spins in a metal with short optical pulses.

Applying x-ray diffraction microscopy to magnetic systems yields simultaneous spatial and temporal information.

Magnetic switching is typically a continuous process, where a field pulse rotates a magnet from up to down, but it is now possible to do this faster — and with all-optical methods — by first quenching the magnetization to zero and then repolarizing it in the opposite direction.

A feeble light beam reverses the magnetism of small regions of a magnetic semiconductor, raising new possibilities for using light in magnetic data storage.

Researchers in Japan have identified spin excitations in multiferroics that can be driven by electric fields.