Transient chiral-induced magnetic effects

Research Project, 2024 – 2029

Ultrashort laser pulses can induce chiral excitations in materials, with the chiral phonon as the prime example. Chiral excitations lead to a transient magnetization of the sample, even in intrinsically non-magnetic materials. Our current theoretical understanding of the size of this phenomenon is very limited, leading to a mismatch between theory and experiment of at least three orders of magnitude.
The project develops the microscopic theory to understand the interplay of magnetism and chiral excitations, for chiral phonons and beyond. Hence, the outcome of TIME will explain and stimulate THz pump probe experiments at (future) state-of-the-art large scale facilities, e.g., XFEL or Max IV (e.g. FemtoMAX, SXL).