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Using ultrashort laser pulses it is possible to induce ferromagnetic ordering in otherwise anti-ferromagnetic FeRh. Here, Li et al. use THz emission spectroscopy with double pump to probe the transient dynamics of this transition, showing the insusceptibility of the ferromagnetic order to applied magnetic fields at picosecond timescales.

Precise control of vibrational states coupled to electronic degrees of freedom could enable control over charge or magnetic order in a material. Here, the authors use a double-pulse photoexcitation combined with an X-ray probe to control vibrational states near the critical point of spin density wave in Cr films.

Switching of magnetic materials often occurs through discrete random avalanches. Singh et al. observe sharply reduced avalanches in the topologically protected skyrmion phase of a Fe/Gd heterostructure and obtain different critical behaviour in the stripe and skyrmion phases, suggesting distinct universality classes.

Although magnetostriction is universal in magnetic materials, understanding its microscopic origin remains challenging. Here the authors use X-ray and ultrafast electron diffraction to separate the material’s sub-picosecond spin and lattice responses and reveal the magnetoelastic stress generated by demagnetization.

Here, Smalleyet al. demonstrate luminescent hyperbolic metasurfaces wherein quantum heterostructures simultaneously function as the emission source and constituent dielectric. The design enables extreme polarization anisotropy of photoluminescence and efficient extraction of in-plane surface modes.

FeRh possesses a unique hysteretic metamagnetic phase transition between antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic order close to room temperature. Here, the authors demonstrate a strong enhancement of the asymmetry of this transition in mesoscale stripes of FeRh.

“The technical support from SLAC Accelerator Directorate, Technology Innovation Directorate, LCLS laser division and Test Facility Division is gratefully acknowledged. We thank S.P. Weathersby, R.K. Jobe, D. McCormick, A. Mitra, S. Carron and J. Corbett for their invaluable help and technical assistance. Research at SLAC was supported through the SIMES Institute which like the LCLS and SSRL user facilities is funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515. The UED work was performed at SLAC MeV-UED, which is supported in part by the DOE BES SUF Division Accelerator & Detector R&D program, the LCLS Facility, and SLAC under contract Nos. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 and DE-AC02-76SF00515. Use of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515.” and “Work at BNL was supported by DOE BES Materials Science and Engineering Division under Contract No: DE-AC02-98CH10886. J.C. would like to acknowledge the support from National Science Foundation Grant No. 1207252. E.E.F. would like to acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) under Award No. DE-SC0003678.” This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

The original version of this Article contained an error in Fig. 4d, in which the label of the region to the left of the white dashed lines incorrectly read ‘Order stripes’. The correct version states ‘Disorder stripes’. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.