optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

, the inverse Faraday effect is the effect opposite to the

Faraday effect The Faraday effect or Faraday rotation, sometimes referred to as the magneto-optic Faraday effect (MOFE), is a physical magneto-optical phenomenon. The Faraday effect causes a polarization rotation which is proportional to the projection of the m ...

. A static

magnetization In classical electromagnetism, magnetization is the vector field that expresses the density of permanent or induced magnetic dipole moments in a magnetic material. Movement within this field is described by direction and is either Axial or Di ...

\mathbf(0)

is induced by an external oscillating

electrical field An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field fo ...

with the frequency

\omega

, which can be achieved with a high intensity

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

pulse for example. The induced magnetization is proportional to the vector product of

\mathbf

and

\mathbf^*

\mathbf(0)\propto mathbf(\omega)\times\mathbf^*(\omega) /math>

From this equation we see that the circularly polarized light with the frequency \omega should induce a magnetization along the

wave vector In physics, a wave vector (or wavevector) is a vector used in describing a wave, with a typical unit being cycle per metre. It has a magnitude and direction. Its magnitude is the wavenumber of the wave (inversely proportional to the wavelength), ...

\mathbf

. Because

\vec

is in the

vector product In mathematics, the cross product or vector product (occasionally directed area product, to emphasize its geometric significance) is a binary operation on two vectors in a three-dimensional oriented Euclidean vector space (named here E), and is d ...

, left- and right-handed polarization waves should induce magnetization of opposite signs. The induced magnetization is comparable to the saturated magnetization of the media.

References

* *{{cite journal, last1=Kimel, first1=A. V., last2=Kirilyuk, first2=A., last3=Usachev, first3=P. A., last4=Pisarev, first4=R. V., last5=Balbashov, first5=A. M., last6=Rasing, first6=Th., s2cid=4431535, author-link6=Theo Rasing, title=Ultrafast non-thermal control of magnetization by instantaneous photomagnetic pulses, journal=Nature, volume=435, issue=7042, year=2005, pages=655–657, issn=0028-0836, doi=10.1038/nature03564, pmid=15917826, bibcode=2005Natur.435..655K Magneto-optic effects