0000000000467609
AUTHOR
Alexey Melnikov
Nonequilibrium magnetization dynamics of gadolinium studied by magnetic linear dichroism in time-resolved 4f core-level photoemission.
The magnetic linear dichroism of the gadolinium 4f core level is studied in a time-resolved photoemission experiment employing laser pump- and synchrotron-radiation probe pulses. Upon optical excitation of the 5d6s valence electrons with femtosecond laser pulses, the magnetic order in the 4f spin system is reduced. Remarkably, the linear dichroism remains at 80% of the equilibrium contrast while the lattice temperature reaches the Curie temperature due to electron-phonon scattering. Contrasting itinerant ferromagnets, this shows that equilibration between the lattice and spin subsystems takes in Gd about 80 ps and is established in parallel with heat diffusion.
Femtosecond formation dynamics of the spin Seebeck effect revealed by terahertz spectroscopy
Understanding the transfer of spin angular momentum is essential in modern magnetism research. A model case is the generation of magnons in magnetic insulators by heating an adjacent metal film. Here, we reveal the initial steps of this spin Seebeck effect with <27fs time resolution using terahertz spectroscopy on bilayers of ferrimagnetic yttrium-iron garnet and platinum. Upon exciting the metal with an infrared laser pulse, a spin Seebeck current $j_\textrm{s}$ arises on the same ~100fs time scale on which the metal electrons thermalize. This observation highlights that efficient spin transfer critically relies on carrier multiplication and is driven by conduction electrons scattering …