https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-022-00433-7
Regular Article - Solid State and Materials
Impact of electron correlation on the light-induced demagnetization of elemental ferromagnetic metals
1
Institut für Physik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 06099, Halle, Germany
2
Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter and Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
d
miguel.marques@physik.uni-halle.de
Received:
13
July
2022
Accepted:
7
October
2022
Published online:
26
October
2022
The local spin-density approximation (LSDA) is known to describe poorly the electronic structure of 3d transition metals, yet most density-functional-based ab-initio studies of ultra-fast demagnetization rely on it. One way to account for Coulomb correlations among the localized d electrons and go beyond LSDA is to include the effective correlation energy (or Hubbard) U. By doing so, we show here that electronic correlations lead to sizable changes of the laser-induced demagnetization of iron, cobalt, and nickel. We study how the various laser parameters, such as pulse duration or intensity, change the magnetization dynamics. It turns out that the total laser fluence is not suitable to quantify how much a laser pulse demagnetizes a material, as changes in pulse duration and shape influence significantly the outcome. The findings are traced back to the electronic structure of the material, and explained based on phase space for optical transitions.
© The Author(s) 2022
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