Sergio Martín Domene, researcher in the Laser and Photonics Applications group and member of the ERC Attostructura project, has been awarded third prize within the 1st Edition of the Awards for Excellence in Master’s Thesis for Research in Quantum Communications.
The objective of the contest is to recognize the Master’s Thesis presented by USAL students in the years 2022 and 2023 to promote both scientific and technical research and the transfer of knowledge.
The award-winning work is titled “Study of the dynamics of excited magnetization using structured laser pulses.”
One of the most active fields currently on the scientific scene is quantum computing, where the communications of the future are advancing. Although the theory necessary to understand quantum information and computing is quite advanced, technologically it is still a challenge to manufacture physical support devices. In this sense, there are different ways to build or materialize a physical system that is capable of storing a unit of quantum information, called a qubit (quantum bit). Some of these proposals are based on the recent fields of spintronics and magnonics, that is, the use of magnetic systems to enable the storage and manipulation of data. Understanding at a fundamental level how these systems behave is crucial to continue promoting research.
In this work, a theoretical study is carried out through numerical simulations, demonstrating that it is possible to carry out ultrafast control of the magnetization (macroscopic description of a set of spins, a quantum mechanical property) of a ferromagnetic material hundreds of nanometers in size. , thanks to the interaction of structured laser pulses of a few picoseconds in duration. The novel aspect lies in the fact that these generated pulses consist of an intense circularly polarized magnetic field isolated from the electric field, obtained from the strong focusing of two out-of-phase cylindrical vector beams propagating in perpendicular directions. On the one hand, this scheme allows avoiding losses due to the Joule effect in the magnetic sample due to the currents that would be induced by the interaction with the electric field. On the other hand, the interaction of the magnetization field of the sample with the magnetic field of the optical field is much more direct, resulting in a chiral and nonlinear effect on the dynamics when the polarization state is circular.
This award is part of the Complementary Plan in Quantum Communications, within the NextGeneration program of the European Union (PRTRC17.I1) which is financed by the European Union, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Transformation and Resilience Recovery Plan and the Junta of Castilla y León through its Nos Impulsa program.
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