Femtosecond opto-magnetism: Ultrafast laser manipulation of magnetic materials

Abstract

This review summarizes the recent progress in the study of ultrafast nonthermal effects of light on magnetic materials. It is demonstrated that due to opto-magnetic phenomena an intense 100fs circularly polarized laser pulse acts on the spins similar to an equivalently short effective magnetic field pulse up to 1 T. The review shows that using such opto-magnetic phenomena one may selectively excite different modes of magnetic resonance, realize quantum control of magnons, trigger magnetic phase transitions and switch spins on a subpicosecond time-scale. All these findings open new insights into the understanding of ultrafast magnetic excitation and, considering recent progress in the development of compact ultrafast lasers, may provide new prospects for applications of ultrafast opto-magnetic phenomena in magnetic storage and information processing technology. A figure is presented. All optical magnetic recording with 40fs circularly polarized laser pulses. This was achived by scanning a circularly polarized laser beam across the sample and simultaneously modulating the polarization of the beam between left-and right circular. © 2007 by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.