Authors: M. Tuan Trinh, Gregory Smail, Krishnandu Makhal, Da Seul Yang, Jinsang Kim, Stephen C. Rand
Published: 2020-10-20
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19125-w
Source: Full article
AbstractThe subject of electromagnetism has often been called electrodynamics to emphasize the dominance of the electric field in dynamic light–matter interactions that take place under non-relativistic conditions. Here we show experimentally that the often neglected optical magnetic field can nevertheless play an important role in a class of optical nonlinearities driven by both the electric and magnetic components of light at modest (non-relativistic) intensities. We specifically report the observation of magneto-electric rectification, a previously unexplored nonlinearity at the molecular level which has important potential for energy conversion, ultrafast switching, nano-photonics, and nonlinear optics. Our experiments were carried out in nanocrystalline pentacene thin films possessing spatial inversion symmetry that prohibited second-order, all-electric nonlinearities but allowed magneto-electric rectification.