Stroboscopic Microscopy of Magnetic Dynamics

Abstract

The enhanced capabilities of contemporary pulsed light sources have led to the reflourishing, in recent years, of ultrafast imaging of micromagnetic dynamics. Concurrently, interest in the subject has been intensified by other factors, such as the emergence of intrinsic magnetic response times as a potential limitation to the ultimate bandwidth of magnetic data storage and by increasingly powerful computer models of magnetic dynamics which call for experimental comparisons. This review contains a discussion of the experimental details behind ultrafast time-resolved magneto-optic imaging, sandwiched between a brief historical overview and a presentation of some recent results, and accompanied by an outline of some future prospects.