Coherent antiferromagnetic resonance in MnO driven by impulsive terahertz excitation
Abstract
Antiferromagnets (AFMs) offer a promising platform for ultrafast information processing owing to their intrinsically fast spin dynamics and vanishing net magnetization. Realizing this potential, however, requires understanding how terahertz fields excite coherent magnons and how the resulting spin motion is transduced into an optical signal. Here we report impulsive terahertz (THz) excitation and time-domain detection of the antiferromagnetic resonance (AFMR) in single-crystal manganese(II) oxide. Time-resolved birefringence measurements reveal long-lived coherent spin oscillations in the AFM phase. The resonance softens and becomes strongly damped upon warming toward the Néel temperature. Despite this similar excitation behavior, the detected birefringence in MnO is markedly weaker than in NiO. We associate this suppressed optical visibility with the weak spin--orbit-mediated magneto-optical coupling of orbital-singlet, high-spin Mn2+. These results demonstrate that coherent magnon excitation and its optical detection are governed by distinct microscopic interactions.
Related
- Room-temperature antiferromagnetic resonance in NaMnAs
- Terahertz two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy: unlocking coherent quantum intraband nonlinear dynamics
- Coherent terahertz magnon-phonon three-wave mixing in a layered antiferromagnet
- Stability-threshold control of helicity-selective antiferromagnetic resonance
- Coherent terahertz control of metastable magnetization in FePS3
BibTeX
@misc{lv2026coherent,
title = {{Coherent antiferromagnetic resonance in MnO driven by impulsive terahertz excitation}},
author = {Yinchuan Lv and Martin J. Cross and Hari Paudyal and Christopher T. Parzyck and A. H. M. Reid and Durga Paudyal and Matthias C. Hoffmann},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.20122},
eprint = {2609.20122},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20122},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Coherent antiferromagnetic resonance in MnO driven by impulsive terahertz excitation
AU - Yinchuan Lv
AU - Martin J. Cross
AU - Hari Paudyal
AU - Christopher T. Parzyck
AU - A. H. M. Reid
AU - Durga Paudyal
AU - Matthias C. Hoffmann
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.20122
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20122
AB - Antiferromagnets (AFMs) offer a promising platform for ultrafast information processing owing to their intrinsically fast spin dynamics and vanishing net magnetization. Realizing this potential, however, requires understanding how terahertz fields excite coherent magnons and how the resulting spin motion is transduced into an optical signal. Here we report impulsive terahertz (THz) excitation and time-domain detection of the antiferromagnetic resonance (AFMR) in single-crystal manganese(II) oxide. Time-resolved birefringence measurements reveal long-lived coherent spin oscillations in the AFM phase. The resonance softens and becomes strongly damped upon warming toward the Néel temperature. Despite this similar excitation behavior, the detected birefringence in MnO is markedly weaker than in NiO. We associate this suppressed optical visibility with the weak spin--orbit-mediated magneto-optical coupling of orbital-singlet, high-spin Mn^2+. These results demonstrate that coherent magnon excitation and its optical detection are governed by distinct microscopic interactions.
ER -