IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-60060-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Antiferromagnet-topological insulator heterostructure for polarization-controllable terahertz generation

Author

Listed:
  • Yu Cheng

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Faran Zhou

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jing Teng

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Peiyan Li

    (Beihang University
    Beihang University)

  • Litong Jiang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Piming Gong

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yongqing Li

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Xiaojun Wu

    (Beihang University
    Beihang University
    Zhangjiang Laboratory)

  • Franz X. Kärtner

    (Notkestraße 85)

  • Jimin Zhao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory)

Abstract

Antiferromagnets (AFMs) are more advantageous in realizing ultrafast spin-based processes, but remain challenging to manipulate. The lack of proper knobs in AFM-based ultrafast devices greatly hampers their applications. Here, we innovate an antiferromagnet/topological insulator (AFM/TI) heterostructure MnSe/(Bi,Sb)2Te3 to realize laser-induced transient magnetic moment, and further demonstrate optically controllable circularly polarized ultrafast terahertz (THz) pulse generation, under zero external magnetic field. Intriguingly, we find two mechanisms underlying the ultrafast THz pulse generation: direct magnetic dipole radiation and spin-charge conversion resulted electric dipole radiation. Our findings provide a suitable platform for efficient and polarization-controllable ultrafast THz devices via optical means.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu Cheng & Faran Zhou & Jing Teng & Peiyan Li & Litong Jiang & Piming Gong & Yongqing Li & Xiaojun Wu & Franz X. Kärtner & Jimin Zhao, 2025. "Antiferromagnet-topological insulator heterostructure for polarization-controllable terahertz generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60060-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60060-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60060-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-60060-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. Lebrun & A. Ross & S. A. Bender & A. Qaiumzadeh & L. Baldrati & J. Cramer & A. Brataas & R. A. Duine & M. Kläui, 2018. "Tunable long-distance spin transport in a crystalline antiferromagnetic iron oxide," Nature, Nature, vol. 561(7722), pages 222-225, September.
    2. Ioan Mihai Miron & Kevin Garello & Gilles Gaudin & Pierre-Jean Zermatten & Marius V. Costache & Stéphane Auffret & Sébastien Bandiera & Bernard Rodmacq & Alain Schuhl & Pietro Gambardella, 2011. "Perpendicular switching of a single ferromagnetic layer induced by in-plane current injection," Nature, Nature, vol. 476(7359), pages 189-193, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Won-Young Choi & Jae-Hyun Ha & Min-Seung Jung & Seong Been Kim & Hyun Cheol Koo & OukJae Lee & Byoung-Chul Min & Hyejin Jang & Aga Shahee & Ji-Wan Kim & Mathias Kläui & Jung-Il Hong & Kyoung-Whan Kim , 2025. "Magnetization switching driven by magnonic spin dissipation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Dongsheng Yang & Taeheon Kim & Kyusup Lee & Chang Xu & Yakun Liu & Fei Wang & Shishun Zhao & Dushyant Kumar & Hyunsoo Yang, 2024. "Spin-orbit torque manipulation of sub-terahertz magnons in antiferromagnetic α-Fe2O3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Yahong Chai & Yuhan Liang & Cancheng Xiao & Yue Wang & Bo Li & Dingsong Jiang & Pratap Pal & Yongjian Tang & Hetian Chen & Yuejie Zhang & Hao Bai & Teng Xu & Wanjun Jiang & Witold Skowroński & Qinghua, 2024. "Voltage control of multiferroic magnon torque for reconfigurable logic-in-memory," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Haiyu Wang & Hao Wu & Jie Zhang & Yingjie Liu & Dongdong Chen & Chandan Pandey & Jialiang Yin & Dahai Wei & Na Lei & Shuyuan Shi & Haichang Lu & Peng Li & Albert Fert & Kang L. Wang & Tianxiao Nie & W, 2023. "Room temperature energy-efficient spin-orbit torque switching in two-dimensional van der Waals Fe3GeTe2 induced by topological insulators," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Freddie Hendriks & Rafael R. Rojas-Lopez & Bert Koopmans & Marcos H. D. Guimarães, 2024. "Electric control of optically-induced magnetization dynamics in a van der Waals ferromagnetic semiconductor," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Yuhan Liang & Di Yi & Tianxiang Nan & Shengsheng Liu & Le Zhao & Yujun Zhang & Hetian Chen & Teng Xu & Minyi Dai & Jia-Mian Hu & Ben Xu & Ji Shi & Wanjun Jiang & Rong Yu & Yuan-Hua Lin, 2023. "Field-free spin-orbit switching of perpendicular magnetization enabled by dislocation-induced in-plane symmetry breaking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    7. Lijun Zhu & Daniel C. Ralph, 2023. "Strong variation of spin-orbit torques with relative spin relaxation rates in ferrimagnets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Cécile Grezes & Aurélie Kandazoglou & Maxen Cosset-Cheneau & Luis M. Vicente Arche & Paul Noël & Paolo Sgarro & Stephane Auffret & Kevin Garello & Manuel Bibes & Laurent Vila & Jean-Philippe Attané, 2023. "Non-volatile electric control of spin-orbit torques in an oxide two-dimensional electron gas," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    9. Yong Xu & Fan Zhang & Albert Fert & Henri-Yves Jaffres & Yongshan Liu & Renyou Xu & Yuhao Jiang & Houyi Cheng & Weisheng Zhao, 2024. "Orbitronics: light-induced orbital currents in Ni studied by terahertz emission experiments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    10. Hetian Chen & Dingsong Jiang & Yujun Zhang & Xiaofu Qiu & Yuhan Liang & Qinghua Zhang & Fangyuan Zhu & Takuo Ohkochi & Mingfeng Chen & Yue Wang & Jingchun Liu & Qing He & Jing Ma & Pu Yu & Yuanhua Lin, 2025. "Pure spin current polarizer enabled by antiferromagnetic insulator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    11. Zhenyi Zheng & Tao Zeng & Tieyang Zhao & Shu Shi & Lizhu Ren & Tongtong Zhang & Lanxin Jia & Youdi Gu & Rui Xiao & Hengan Zhou & Qihan Zhang & Jiaqi Lu & Guilei Wang & Chao Zhao & Huihui Li & Beng Kan, 2024. "Effective electrical manipulation of a topological antiferromagnet by orbital torques," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Qu Yang & Donghyeon Han & Shishun Zhao & Jaimin Kang & Fei Wang & Sung-Chul Lee & Jiayu Lei & Kyung-Jin Lee & Byong-Guk Park & Hyunsoo Yang, 2024. "Field-free spin–orbit torque switching in ferromagnetic trilayers at sub-ns timescales," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-6, December.
    13. Farhan Nur Kholid & Dominik Hamara & Ahmad Faisal Bin Hamdan & Guillermo Nava Antonio & Richard Bowen & Dorothée Petit & Russell Cowburn & Roman V. Pisarev & Davide Bossini & Joseph Barker & Chiara Ci, 2023. "The importance of the interface for picosecond spin pumping in antiferromagnet-heavy metal heterostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. M. Usama Hasan & Alexander E. Kossak & Geoffrey S. D. Beach, 2023. "Large exchange bias enhancement and control of ferromagnetic energy landscape by solid-state hydrogen gating," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    15. Ju-Young Yoon & Yutaro Takeuchi & Ryota Takechi & Jiahao Han & Tomohiro Uchimura & Yuta Yamane & Shun Kanai & Jun’ichi Ieda & Hideo Ohno & Shunsuke Fukami, 2025. "Electrical mutual switching in a noncollinear-antiferromagnetic–ferromagnetic heterostructure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    16. Min-Gu Kang & Jong-Guk Choi & Jimin Jeong & Jae Yeol Park & Hyeon-Jong Park & Taehwan Kim & Taekhyeon Lee & Kab-Jin Kim & Kyoung-Whan Kim & Jung Hyun Oh & Duc Duong Viet & Jong-Ryul Jeong & Jong Min Y, 2021. "Electric-field control of field-free spin-orbit torque switching via laterally modulated Rashba effect in Pt/Co/AlOx structures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    17. E. Rongione & O. Gueckstock & M. Mattern & O. Gomonay & H. Meer & C. Schmitt & R. Ramos & T. Kikkawa & M. Mičica & E. Saitoh & J. Sinova & H. Jaffrès & J. Mangeney & S. T. B. Goennenwein & S. Geprägs , 2023. "Emission of coherent THz magnons in an antiferromagnetic insulator triggered by ultrafast spin–phonon interactions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Yoichi Shiota & Tomohiro Taniguchi & Daiju Hayashi & Hideki Narita & Shutaro Karube & Ryusuke Hisatomi & Takahiro Moriyama & Teruo Ono, 2024. "Handedness manipulation of propagating antiferromagnetic magnons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    19. Dongjoon Lee & Dongwook Go & Hyeon-Jong Park & Wonmin Jeong & Hye-Won Ko & Deokhyun Yun & Daegeun Jo & Soogil Lee & Gyungchoon Go & Jung Hyun Oh & Kab-Jin Kim & Byong-Guk Park & Byoung-Chul Min & Hyun, 2021. "Orbital torque in magnetic bilayers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    20. Jilei Chen & Mingran Xu & Jinlong Wang & Kai Wagner & Lutong Sheng & Hao Jia & Weiwei Wei & Han Zhang & Yuelin Zhang & Hanchen Wang & Rundong Yuan & Mohammad Hamdi & Song Liu & Tingyong Chen & Patrick, 2025. "Deterministic switching of antiferromagnetic spin textures by nonlinear magnons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60060-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.