Opto-thermo-electrical generation of magnetic field

Abstract

Loops of two metallic or semiconductor materials were used by Thomas Seebeck nearly two-centuries ago in his discovery of the thermoelectric effect. Replacing the lamp in this seminal experiment by an ultrashort laser and scaling down the loop to the nanoscale is predicted to lead to a magnetic pulse with high confinement in time and space. Here we investigate how characteristics of the light pulse and the nanoring influence the generation of the magnetic pulse.