Imaging antiferromagnetic domains in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>LiCoPO</mml:mi> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:math> via the optical magnetoelectric effect
Boglárka G.-Tóth, Vilmos Kocsis, Yuuki Tokunaga, Y. Taguchi, Yoshinori Tokura, S. Bordács
Abstract
Despite the rising scientific interest in antiferromagnets, the detection and manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains remain challenging. In noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnets, the magnetoelectric effect may provide novel opportunities to access the compensated magnetic order. It may enable unusual optical phenomena such as nonreciprocal directional dichroism (NDD). Here, the authors report strong NDD in the near-infrared and visible spectral ranges in LiCoPO${}_{4}$ between its two antiphase (time-reversed) antiferromagnetic domains. The effect is strongest near the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 $n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}m$, where a simple laser scanning technique is used to visualize these domains.