Electron-magnon scattering in magnetic heterostructures far out of equilibrium

2015/04/02 by Erlend G. Tveten, Erlend Grytli Tveten, Arne Brataas +1 · 75 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Ferromagnetism #Heterojunction #Magnetic Properties and Applications #Magnetic properties of thin films #Magnon #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.92.180412

published in Physical Review B 92(18) (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2015/04/02 · openalex publication_date 2015/11/23 · arxiv updated 2015/12/02 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We present a theory of out-of-equilibrium ultrafast spin dynamics in magnetic heterostructures based on the s-d model of ferromagnetism. Both in the bulk and across interfaces, the exchange processes between the itinerant s and the localized d electrons are described by kinetic rate equations for electron-magnon spin-flop scattering. The principal channel for dissipation of angular momentum is provided by spin relaxation of the itinerant electrons. Our theory extends interfacial spin phenomena such as torques, pumping, and the Peltier and Seebeck effects to address laser-induced rapid spin dynamics, in which the effective electron temperature may approach or even exceed the Curie temperature.

Citations

• Time-dependent transport in interacting and non-interacting mesoscopic systems
• Interfacial spin and heat transfer between metals and magnetic insulators
• Landauer formula for the current through an interacting electron region
• Classics in Magnetics A Phenomenological Theory of Damping in Ferromagnetic Materials

Cited by

• Bringing light into the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation: Consequences of its fractal non-Markovian memory kernel for optically induced magnetic inertia and magnons