Fig. 1: Heating a magnet without changing its magnetization. (A) A ferrimagnet consists of two spin sorts of opposite orientation (green and blue arrows). In the experiment, the atomic lattice of the ferrimagnet is heated by an extremely short terahertz laser pulse. This situation is analogous to heating the air (=atomic lattice) inside an oven that contains a pot with water (=spins). (B) Heat is transferred into the spin system and decreases the magnetization of each spin type by exactly the same amount. This process arises because spin is transferred from the blue to the green spin sort. Thus, the magnet is heated without changing its total magnetization! In the pot analogy, heat is transferred from the air outside the pot to the water inside. While the amount of water in the pot has not changed, an overpressure has built up. (C) Finally, the hot spins release their overpressure to the atomic lattice, thereby reducing the total magnetization. In the analogy, water overpressure is released through little leaks in the pot lid. (Source: FHI)

These two time scales can be understood in analogy to water in a closed pot that is put into a hot oven. The hot air of the oven corresponds to the hot atomic lattice whereas the magnetic spins correspond to the water inside the pot (see panel A). Once the atomic lattice is heated by the terahertz laser burst, the enhanced random oscillations of the atoms lead to a transfer of magnetic order from spin type 1 to spin type 2. Therefore, both the magnetic moments M₁ (blue arrows in panel B) and M₂ (green arrows) are reduced by exactly the same amount (red arrows). This process evolves on the fast time scale, and the atomic spins are forced to heat up while leaving the total magnetization M₁-M₂ unchanged, just like water in a closed pot that has to keep its volume.

We know, however, that a heated ferrimagnet not only aims at reducing M₁ and M₂, but also its total magnetization M₁-M₂. To do so, part of the spin must be released to the atomic lattice. This situation is again completely analogous to the hot water in a closed pot: the pressure inside the pot increases but is slowly released to the outside through little leaks in the lid (see panel C). This leakage of angular momentum to the atomic lattice is exactly what happens in the ferrimagnet through weak couplings between spins and lattice.

"We now have a clear picture of how the hot atomic lattice and the cold magnetic spins of a ferrimagnetic insulator equilibrate with each other." says Ilie Radu. The international team of researchers discovered that energy transfer proceeds very quickly and leads to a novel state of matter in which the spins are hot but have not yet reduced their total magnetic moment. This "spin overpressure" is released through much slower processes that permit leakage of angular momentum to the lattice. "Our results are also relevant for applications in data storage." Sebastian Maehrlein adds. “The reason is simple. Whenever we want to switch the value of a bit between 0 to 1 in a magnetic storage medium, angular momentum and energy have to finally be transferred between atomic lattice and spins."