Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 4: Focus Session: Novel mechanisms of ferroic switching (joint session MA/FM)
MA 4.3: Hauptvortrag
Montag, 9. März 2026, 10:30–11:00, POT/0151
Optical Control of Ferroaxial Order via Circular Phonon Excitation — •Zhiyang Zeng1,2, Michael Först1, Michael Fechner1, Dharmalingam Prabhakaran2, Paolo Radaelli2, and Andrea Cavalleri1,2 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany — 2Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Ferroaxial order is a distinct ferroic order in crystal systems characterized by a rotational texture of electric dipoles. Its unique symmetry prohibits direct coupling to static fields or stress, making conventional control approaches ineffective.
Based on symmetry analysis, we identify a coupling between the ferroaxial order and circularly driven optical phonons, which can be resonantly excited with circularly polarized mid-infrared light. Exploiting this coupling, we experimentally achieve reversible, deterministic switching of the ferroaxial order in the prototype material RbFe(MoO4)2 using single-shot excitation.
This work establishes a new mechanism for manipulating ferroaxial order via light-driven phonons, enabling dynamic control of ferroic properties in complex materials.
Keywords: Ferroaxial order; Ultrafast control; Ferroic order switching; Resonant phonon excitation