In Situ Electric-Field Control of THz Nonreciprocal Directional Dichroism in the Multiferroic Ba_{2}CoGe_{2}O_{7}.

Nonreciprocal directional dichroism, also called the optical-diode effect, is an appealing functional property inherent to the large class of noncentrosymmetric magnets. However, the in situ electric control of this phenomenon is challenging as it requires a set of conditions to be fulfilled: Special symmetries of the magnetic ground state, spin excitations with comparable magnetic- and electric-dipole activity, and switchable electric polarization. We demonstrate the isothermal electric switch between domains of Ba_{2}CoGe_{2}O_{7} possessing opposite magnetoelectric susceptibilities. Combining THz spectroscopy and multiboson spin-wave analysis, we show that unbalancing the population of antiferromagnetic domains generates the nonreciprocal light absorption of spin excitations.

Giant magneto-optical responses in magnetic Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2.

The Weyl semimetal (WSM), which hosts pairs of Weyl points and accompanying Berry curvature in momentum space near Fermi level, is expected to exhibit novel electromagnetic phenomena. Although the large optical/electronic responses such as nonlinear optical effects and intrinsic anomalous Hall effect (AHE) have recently been demonstrated indeed, the conclusive evidence for their topological origins has remained elusive. Here, we report the gigantic magneto-optical (MO) response arising from the topological electronic structure with intense Berry curvature in magnetic WSM Co3Sn2S2. The low-energy MO spectroscopy and the first-principles calculation reveal that the interband transitions on the nodal rings connected to the Weyl points show the resonance of the optical Hall conductivity and give rise to the giant intrinsic AHE in dc limit. The terahertz Faraday and infrared Kerr rotations are found to be remarkably enhanced by these resonances with topological electronic structures, demonstrating the novel low-energy optical response inherent to the magnetic WSM.

Magnetization-polarization cross-control near room temperature in hexaferrite single crystals.

Mutual control of the electricity and magnetism in terms of magnetic (H) and electric (E) fields, the magnetoelectric (ME) effect, offers versatile low power consumption alternatives to current data storage, logic gate, and spintronic devices. Despite its importance, E-field control over magnetization (M) with significant magnitude was observed only at low temperatures. Here we have successfully stabilized a simultaneously ferrimagnetic and ferroelectric phase in a Y-type hexaferrite single crystal up to 450 K, and demonstrated the reversal of large non-volatile M by E field close to room temperature. Manipulation of the magnetic domains by E field is directly visualized at room temperature by using magnetic force microscopy. The present achievement provides an important step towards the application of ME multiferroics.

One-way transparency of four-coloured spin-wave excitations in multiferroic materials.

The coupling between spins and electric dipoles governs magnetoelectric phenomena in multiferroics. The dynamical magnetoelectric effect, which is an inherent attribute of the spin excitations in multiferroics, drastically changes the optical properties of these compounds compared with conventional materials where light-matter interaction is expressed only by the dielectric permittivity or magnetic permeability. Here we show via polarized terahertz spectroscopy studies on multiferroic Ca2CoSi2O7, Sr2CoSi2O7 and Ba2CoGe2O7 that such magnetoeletric spin excitations exhibit quadrochroism, that is, they have different colours for all the four combinations of the two propagation directions (forward or backward) and the two orthogonal polarizations of a light beam. We demonstrate that one-way transparency can be realized for spin-wave excitations with sufficiently strong optical magnetoelectric effect. Furthermore, the transparent and absorbing directions of light propagation can be reversed by external magnetic fields. This magnetically controlled optical-diode function of magnetoelectric multiferroics may open a new horizon in photonics.

Malaria pigment crystals as magnetic micro-rotors: key for high-sensitivity diagnosis.

The need to develop new methods for the high-sensitivity diagnosis of malaria has initiated a global activity in medical and interdisciplinary sciences. Most of the diverse variety of emerging techniques are based on research-grade instruments, sophisticated reagent-based assays or rely on expertise. Here, we suggest an alternative optical methodology with an easy-to-use and cost-effective instrumentation based on unique properties of malaria pigment reported previously and determined quantitatively in the present study. Malaria pigment, also called hemozoin, is an insoluble microcrystalline form of heme. These crystallites show remarkable magnetic and optical anisotropy distinctly from any other components of blood. As a consequence, they can simultaneously act as magnetically driven micro-rotors and spinning polarizers in suspensions. These properties can gain importance not only in malaria diagnosis and therapies, where hemozoin is considered as drug target or immune modulator, but also in the magnetic manipulation of cells and tissues on the microscopic scale.

Enhanced infrared magneto-optical response of the nonmagnetic semiconductor BiTeI driven by bulk Rashba splitting.

We study the magneto-optical (MO) response of the polar semiconductor BiTeI with giant bulk Rashba spin splitting at various carrier densities. Despite being nonmagnetic, the material is found to yield a huge MO activity in the infrared region under moderate magnetic fields (up to 3 T). Our first-principles calculations show that the enhanced MO response of BiTeI comes mainly from the intraband transitions between the Rashba-split bulk conduction bands. These transitions connecting electronic states with opposite spin directions become active due to the presence of strong spin-orbit interaction and give rise to distinct features in the MO spectra with a systematic doping dependence. We predict an even more pronounced enhancement in the low-energy MO response and dc Hall effect near the crossing (Dirac) point of the conduction bands.