Invited by Prof. SHENG Zhigao at High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CHMFL), Prof. A.V. Kimel, the leading scientist of Radboud University Nijmegen and the awardee of “CAS President’s International Fellowship for Distinguished Scientists”, visited CHMFL on April 1-4, 2019.

Prof. A.V. Kimel is a pioneer in the field of opto-magnetism. His team has taken the lead in the research of thermo-free ultrafast magnetic recording in the world, and further proposed a widely accepted mechanism. Hence, his researches have stimulated a large number of international colleagues to follow.

Prof. SHENG’s group in CHMFL has started to collaborate with Prof. Kimel’s group in the ultrafast opto-magnetism studies of low-dimensional materials since 2017.

During this visit, Prof. A. V. Kimel and Prof. SHENG’s group discussed the technological difficulties encountered in the construction of ultrafast magneto-optic system at CHMFL. He proposed some possible solutions and expressed his willingness to explore physical mechanism of magnetic recording by further cooperation. It helped to set a solid ground for future cooperation on ultrafast magneto-optic technologies between the two parties.

Prof. A.V. Kimel also had a site tour of the magnet facilities at CHMFL, and gave a presentation entitled “Femtosecond opto-magnetism: cold writing at the edge of time”.

The vivid and succinct presentation, given by Prof. A.V. Kimel, attracted a great number of researchers and staff members. He gave an overview of work to show that optical pulses facilitate conceptually new approach to magnetic data storage. And then he discussed possible mechanisms of magnetic recording with the help of femtosecond laser pulse. After the meeting, he and participants further discussed and exchanged the ideas of related problems, which gave everyone a lot of inspiration.

Prof. A.V. Kimel has published118 refereed and 16 non-refereed articles in the field of ultrafast magneto-optics in the past ten years, including 4 in Nature, 13 in Nature series and 18 in Physical Review Letters.

He is also the senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE), the member of the review board of European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) and Free Electron laser Radiation for Multidisciplinary Investigations (FERMI) Device, and the member of the science advisory committee of Europe Lead Blue Energy (ELBE) Device.

This visit was supported by the “President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI)” program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which supports highly-qualified international scientists and postgraduate students to work and study at CAS institutions and strengthen their scientific collaboration with CAS researchers.