Metamaterial route to light-induced generation of a subwavelength static magnetic field

For applications in magnetism and spintronics, generating a static magnetic field using light would significantly boost speed and storage density of information. Unfortunately, despite decades of development there are still limitations at the frontiers of photonics and magnetism, such as spatial confinement and degrees of manipulation freedom. Researchers now demonstrate that these drawbacks can be overcome by harnessing metamaterials to generate a static driving force under pumping light. This force compels the electrons to move unidirectionally and induce a static magnetic field, at a scale of 1/1000 of the operating wavelength, with ultrafast time response.