Research project Ultrafast magnetism
An often forgotten energy consumer is the internet. Data centres, where information is stored in the form of magnetic bits, waste most of their energy as heat. Improve the control over magnetic information is crucial for our society is to prosper.
The overall objective of the project is to better understand the puzzling phenomenon of ultrafast magnetism using new experimental tools (intense terahertz radiation and X-ray free electron lasers), which could be used to design the future of data storage. In the specific, we outlined three main research objectives:
To unveil the process of magnetization dynamics controlled by strong terahertz radiation in magnetic metals (those commonly used to store magnetic information), which will add up an important piece to the puzzle of ultrafast magnetism.
To understand the details of how ultrafast magnetism is linked to the crystal structure of the materials investigated.
To establish how spins move in space and time using x-ray imaging to create the first "movie" of ultrafast magnetism with femtosecond and nanometer resolution at the newly built x-ray free electron lasers.
Project description
Magnetism is one of the first phenomenon known by civilisation, yet one of the most poorly understood. While the origin of magnetism in materials is in atomic interactions of characteristic ultrashort time scales (millionth of a billionth of a second), it has been long believed that magnetism could only be manipulated at relatively slower nanosecond rates, exploiting external magnetic fields. However, in the past decade researchers have been able to observe ultrafast magnetic dynamics at these intrinsic ultrashort time scales without the need for magnetic fields, rather using ultrafast laser, thus revolutionising the view on the speed limits of magnetism. Despite many achievements in ultrafast magnetism, the understanding of the fundamental physics of ultrafast magnetism is still only partial, hampered by the lack of experimental techniques suited to fully explore these phenomena.
As the environment and a responsible energy use are growing concerns for society, an often forgotten source of energy consumption is the large data volumes used across the internet. Large data centres, where information is still stored in the form of tiny magnetic bits, are wasting most of their energy in form of heat, and compression and transmission of the data requires much computing power to deliver content on demand. Addressing how to store and manipulate information not only at higher rate (ideally in the terahertz regime, 1000 times faster than existing technology) but also in a much more energy efficient way, is crucial if our society has to continue to prosper based on technological advances.
The overall objective of the project is hence to better understand the puzzling phenomenon of ultrafast magnetism using new experimental tools (intense terahertz radiation and X-ray free electron lasers), which could be used to design the future of data storage. In the specific, we outlined three main research objectives:
To unveil the process of magnetization dynamics controlled by strong terahertz radiation in magnetic metals (those commonly used to store magnetic information), which will add up an important piece to the puzzle of ultrafast magnetism.
To understand the details of how ultrafast magnetism is linked to the crystal structure of the materials investigated.
To establish how spins move in space and time using x-ray imaging to create the first "movie" of ultrafast magnetism with femtosecond and nanometer resolution at the newly built x-ray free electron lasers.
Project members
Project managers
Stefano Bonetti
Forskare
