Remember the Einstein-de Haas effect? A decade-old physical puzzle now seems to be solved: Where is the angular momentum after ultrafast demagnetization by laser light? A part of the research team that has snatched this secret from nature was our former colleague Prof. Peter Baum, now leader of the research chair “Light and matter” at the University of Konstanz. “Our result not only solved an old mystery in solid-state physics, but simultaneously provided experimental proof that polarized lattice vibrations can indeed transport angular momentum – very effectively and in an ultrafast way. The Einstein-de-Haas effect has an intermediate step on atomic dimensions”, says Peter Baum.
You can read the full story here:
https://www.campus.uni-konstanz.de
Picture credit: Nadja Haji, University of Konstanz
Original publication:
S. R. Tauchert, M. Volkov, D. Ehberger, D. Kazenwadel, M. Evers, H. Lange, A. Donges, A. Book, W. Kreuzpaintner, U. Nowak & P. Baum
Polarized phonons carry angular momentum in ultrafast demagnetization
Nature 602, 73 (2022)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04306-4