All-optical coherent manipulation of magnetization vector in an antiferromagnetic NiO crystal

We propose a new scheme to manipulate a polarization of magnetization vector arbitrarily by controlling those two magnetic oscillation modes independently. We demonstrate excitation of linearly or circularly polarized dynamical magnetizations by tuning the timing and polarizations of the two laser pulses interacting with an antiferromagnetic NiO crystal, based on comprehensive understanding of polarization selection rules.