Laser-controlled real- and reciprocal-space topology in multiferroic insulators

Abstract

Magnetic materials in which it is possible to control the topology of their magnetic order in real space or the topology of their magnetic excitations in reciprocal space are highly sought-after as platforms for alternative data storage and computing architectures. Here we show that multiferroic insulators, owing to their magneto-electric coupling, offer a natural and advantageous way to address these two different topologies using laser fields. We demonstrate that via a delicate balance between the energy injection from a high-frequency laser and dissipation, single skyrmions-archetypical topological magnetic textures-can be set into motion with a velocity and propagation direction that can be tuned by the laser field amplitude and polarization, respectively. Moreover, we uncover an ultrafast Floquet magnonic topological phase transition in a laser-driven skyrmion crystal and we propose a new diagnostic tool to reveal it using the magnonic thermal Hall conductivity.