Light-induced ferromagnetism above the Curie temperature in CrGeTe 3

Ultrafast optical control of magnetism is a vibrant field in which femtosecond laser pulses are used to tune, manipulate, and enhance material magnetic properties. In this work, we induce ferromagnetism above ${\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{Curie}}$ by utilizing the coupling between spin and electrons in ${\mathrm{CrGeTe}}₃$. We suggest that the optical excitation electrons in ${\mathrm{CrGeTe}}₃$ induces a transition from a short-range to long-range magnetic ordering. We discuss the relation of the transition to the magnetic anisotropy of ${\mathrm{CrGeTe}}₃$ and the similarities of the photoinduced magnetism to cases where ${\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{Curie}}$was enhanced in ${\mathrm{CrGeTe}}₃$ by means of electrostatic gating, chemical doping, and hydrostatic pressure.