TY  - JOUR
AU  - Huisman, T. J.
AU  - Mikhaylovskiy, R. V.
AU  - Costa, J. D.
AU  - Freimuth, Frank
AU  - Paz, E.
AU  - Ventura, J.
AU  - Freitas, P. P.
AU  - Blügel, S.
AU  - Mokrousov, Y.
AU  - Rasing, Th.
AU  - Kimel, A. V.
TI  - Femtosecond control of electric currents in metallic ferromagnetic heterostructures
JO  - Nature nanotechnology
VL  - 11
IS  - 5
SN  - 1748-3395
CY  - London [u.a.]
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2016-02491
SP  - 455 - 458
PY  - 2016
AB  - The idea to use not only the charge but also the spin of electrons in the operation of electronic devices has led to the development of spintronics, causing a revolution in how information is stored and processed. A novel advancement would be to develop ultrafast spintronics using femtosecond laser pulses. Employing terahertz (1012 Hz) emission spectroscopy and exploiting the spin–orbit interaction, we demonstrate the optical generation of electric photocurrents in metallic ferromagnetic heterostructures at the femtosecond timescale. The direction of the photocurrent is controlled by the helicity of the circularly polarized light. These results open up new opportunities for realizing spintronics in the unprecedented terahertz regime and provide new insights in all-optical control of magnetism.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000376163300016
C6  - pmid:26854566
DO  - DOI:10.1038/nnano.2015.331
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/809012
ER  -