Focus

We aim at exploring fundamentally new ways to control ultrafast spin and charge currents in ultrathin 2D materials. Currently, our PhD student, Afnan Alostaz, studies the role of hybrid layers forming between ferromagnets and TMDC and their impact on triggering THz spin currents.

Manipulating coupled ferroelectric and magnetic orders on ultrafast time scales holds the promise for efficient future data processing applications. Here, our postdoc, Reza Rouzegar, studies photoinduced femtosecond charge currents in the multiferroic BiFeO₃. Our goal is to understand the excitation and couplings of THz ferrons, the ferroelectric equivalent of a magnon, to the magnetic subsystem.

Understanding the ultrafast dynamics of electrons and spin on their native scales, femtoseconds and nanometers, is extremely relevant to deepen our knowledge about fundamental processes underlying the energy-, linear- and angular-momentum relaxation of electrons. On the other hand, such advancements also bear a large potential to enhance nanoscale applications such as next-generation transistors, solar cells or light-driven reactions. In this project, our postdoc, Atul Pandey combines a metallic scanning probe from an atomic force microscope, yielding nanometer spatial resolution, with ultrabroadband THz time-domain spectroscopy, yielding femtosecond time resolution. The studied sample systems include magnetic and nonmagnetic heterogeneities in 2D materials, multiferroics and complex antiferromagnets such as altermagnets.