Antiferromagnets are tricky beasts. On the one hand, researchers love them because the net-zero magnetization of the materials is robust against stray magnetic fields, meaning the materials can be used as highly stable magnetic shields. On the other hand, researchers hate them because the net-zero magnetization of the materials makes it extremely hard to manipulate an antiferromagnet’s magnetic properties. Now Nuh Gedik of MIT and his team have demonstrated a way to use light to crack the magnetic robustness of an antiferromagnet [1]. The team showed that a terahertz light pulse can rapidly switch on a long-lasting magnetic state in an antiferromagnet, opening a potential direction for future magnetic storage devices.
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