High Efficiency and Flexible Modulation of Spintronic Terahertz Emitters in Synthetic Antiferromagnets

Spintronic terahertz (THz) emitters based on synthetic antiferromagnets (SAFs) of FM1/Ru/FM2 (FM: ferromagnet) have shown great potential for achieving coherent superposition and significant THz power enhancement due to antiparallel magnetization alignment. However, key issues regarding the effects of interlayer exchange coupling and net magnetization on THz emissions remain unclear, which will inevitably hinder the performance improvement and practical application of THz devices. In this work, we have investigated the femtosecond laser-induced THz emission in Pt (3)/CoFe (3)/Ru (t(Ru) = 0-3.5)/CoFe (t(CoFe) = 1.5-10)/Pt (3) (in units of nm) films with compensated and uncompensated magnetic moments. Antiferromagnetic (AF) coupling occurs in the Ru thickness ranges of 0.2-1.1 and 1.9-2.3 nm, with the first peak (t(Ru) = 0.4 nm) of the AF coupling field (H-ex) significantly higher than that of the second peak (2.0 nm). Rather high THz amplitude is found for the samples with strong AF coupling. Nevertheless, despite the same remanence ratio of zero, the THz amplitude for the symmetric SAF films declines significantly as the t(Ru) decreases from 0.8 to 0.4 nm, which is mainly ascribed to the noncolinear magnetization vectors due to the increased biquadratic coupling term. Specifically, we demonstrate that an asymmetric SAF structure with a dominant FM layer is more favored than the completely compensated one, which could generate significantly enhanced THz electric field with well-controlled polarity and intensity. In addition, as the temperature decreases, the THz emission intensity increases for the SAF samples of t(Ru) = 0.9 nm with negligible biquadratic coupling, which is contrary to the decreasing trend of the t(Ru) = 0.4 nm sample and has been attributed to the greatly enhanced H-ex.

Automated summary

This study investigates the THz emission in Pt/CoFe/Ru/CoFe/Pt films induced by femtosecond laser and reveals the effects of compensated and uncompensated magnetic moments. The THz amplitude significantly decreases in symmetric SAF films, while the asymmetric SAF structure is more favorable for enhanced THz emission.