Deterministic control of an antiferromagnetic spin arrangement using ultrafast optical excitation

A central prospect of antiferromagnetic spintronics is to exploit magnetic properties that are unavailable with ferromagnets. However, this poses the challenge of accessing such properties for readout and control. To this end, light-induced manipulation of the transient ground state, e.g. by changing the magnetic anisotropy potential, opens promising pathways towards ultrafast deterministic control of antiferromagnetism. Here, we use this approach to trigger a coherent rotation of the entire long-range antiferromagnetic spin arrangement about a crystalline axis in GdRh2Si2 and demonstrate deterministic control of this rotation. Our observations can be explained by a laser-induced shift of the direction of the Gd spins’ local magnetic anisotropy, and allow for a quantitative description of the transient magnetic anisotropy potential. Antiferromagnets may hold potential as spintronic devices due to their robustness to external magnetic fields, if a suitable control method is realised. Here, a transient rotation of the global spin arrangement of GdRh2Si2 is demonstrated via femtosecond optical excitation.