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ABSTRACT In magnetoelectric and multiferroic materials, the magnetic degree of freedom can be controlled by electric field, and vice versa. A significant amount of research has been devoted

to exploiting this effect for magnetoelectric data storage and manipulation devices driven by d.c. electric fields1,2,3,4. Aiming at ever-faster schemes of magnetoelectric manipulation, a

promising alternative approach offers similar control on a femtosecond timescale, relying on laser pulses4,5,6 to control both the charge7,8 and the magnetic9,10 order of solids. Here we

photo-induce magnetoelectricity and multiferroicity in CuB2O4 on a sub-picosecond timescale. This process is triggered by the resonant optical generation of the highest-energy magnetic

excitations—magnons with wavevectors near the edges of the Brillouin zone. The most striking consequence of the photo-excitation is that the absorption of light becomes non-reciprocal, which

means that the material exhibits a different transparency for two opposite directions of propagation of light. The photo-induced magnetoelectricity does not show any decay on the picosecond

timescale. Our findings uncover a path for ultrafast manipulations of the intrinsic coupling between charges and spins in multiferroics4, which may reveal unexplored magnetic configurations

and unravel new functionalities in terms of femtosecond optical control of magnetism. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via

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subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS TERAHERTZ ELECTRIC-FIELD-DRIVEN DYNAMICAL MULTIFERROICITY IN SRTIO3 Article Open access 10

April 2024 ULTRAFAST SIMULTANEOUS MANIPULATION OF MULTIPLE FERROIC ORDERS THROUGH NONLINEAR PHONON EXCITATION Article Open access 21 February 2025 THREE-STAGE ULTRAFAST DEMAGNETIZATION

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photoluminescence measurements and N. Nemoto, Y. Arashida and H. Sakurai for technical support. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant no. 26247049 and the Photon Frontier Network

Program funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan. D.B was supported by the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) ‘Postdoctoral

Fellowship for Overseas Researcher’ no. P16326. S.T was also supported by JSPS through the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (MERIT) and a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (14J06840). AUTHOR

INFORMATION Author notes * D. Bossini Present address: Experimentelle Physik VI, TU-Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Institute for Photon Science and Technology,

Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan D. Bossini, K. Konishi, J. Yumoto & M. Kuwata-Gonokami * Department of Advanced Materials Science, The University of

Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan S. Toyoda & T. Arima * RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, Japan S. Toyoda * Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of

Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan J. Yumoto & M. Kuwata-Gonokami * Photon Science Center, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo, Japan M. Kuwata-Gonokami Authors * D.

Bossini View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * K. Konishi View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

* S. Toyoda View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * T. Arima View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * J. Yumoto View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * M. Kuwata-Gonokami View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS D.B. conceived the project with contributions from K.K., T.A. and M.K-G. The sample was grown and characterized by S.T. D.B. performed the time-resolved

experiments and analysed the data. All the authors took part in regular discussions and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to D. Bossini.

ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing financial interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to

jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES Supplementary Notes 1–3, Supplementary References. RIGHTS AND

PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Bossini, D., Konishi, K., Toyoda, S. _et al._ Femtosecond activation of magnetoelectricity. _Nature Phys_ 14,

370–374 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-017-0036-1 Download citation * Received: 16 August 2017 * Accepted: 08 December 2017 * Published: 31 January 2018 * Issue Date: April 2018 *

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