No Arabic abstract
Coherent spin-wave generation by focused ultrashort laser pulse irradiation was investigated for a permalloy thin film at micrometer scale using an all-optical space and time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. The spin-wave packet propagating perpendicular to magnetization direction was clearly observed, however that propagating parallel to the magnetization direction was not observed. The propagation length, group velocity, center frequency, and packet-width of the observed spin-wave packet were evaluated and quantitatively explained in terms of the propagation of a magneto-static spin-wave driven by ultrafast change of an out-of-plane demagnetization field induced by the focused-pulse laser.
The Talbot effect has been known in optics since XIX century and found various technological applications. In this paper, we demonstrate with the help of micromagnetic simulations this self-imaging phenomenon for spin waves propagating in a thin ferromagnetic film magnetized out-of-plane. We show that the main features of the obtained Talbot carpets for spin waves can be described, to a large extent, by the approximate analytical formulas yielded by the general analysis of the wave phenomena. Our results indicate a route to a feasible experimental realisation of the Talbot effect at low and high frequencies and offer interesting effects and possible applications in magnonics.
Spin-wave modes are studied under the gradual transition from a flat thin film to a full (one-dimensional) magnonic crystal. For this purpose, the surface of a pre-patterned 36.8 nm thin permalloy film was sequentially ion milled resulting in magnonic hybrid structures, referred to as surface-modulated magnonic crystals, with increasing modulation depth. After each etching step, ferromagnetic resonance measurements were performed yielding the spin-wave resonance modes in backward-volume and Damon-Eshbach geometry. The spin-wave spectra of these hybrid systems reveal an even larger variety of spin-wave states compared to the full magnonic crystal. The measurements are corroborated by quasi-analytical theory and micromagnetic simulations in order to study the changing spin-wave mode character employing spin-wave mode profiles. In backward-volume geometry, a gradual transition from the uniform mode in the film limit to a fundamental mode in the thin part of the magnonic crystal was observed. Equivalently, the first and the second film modes are transform into a center and an edge mode of the thick part of the magnonic crystal. Simple transition rules from the $n^{mathrm{th}}$ film mode to the $m^{mathrm{th}}$ mode in the full magnonic crystal are formulated unraveling the complex mode structure particularly in the backward-volume geometry. An analogous analysis was performed in the Damon-Eshbach geometry.
We report the two-dimensional propagation of photoinduced spin wave packets in Bi-doped rare-earth iron garnet. Spin waves were excited nonthermally and impulsively by a circularly polarized light pulse via the inverse Faraday effect. Space- and time resolved spin waves were detected with a magneto-optical pump-probe technique. We investigated propagation in two directions, parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. Backward volume magnetostatic waves (BVMSWs) were detected in both directions. The frequency of BVMSWs depends on the propagation direction. The experimental results agreed well with the dispersion relation of BVMSWs.
An ultrafast spin current can be induced by femtosecond laser excitation in a ferromagnetic (FM) thin film in contact with a nonmagnetic (NM) metal. The propagation of an ultrafast spin current into NM metal has recently been found in experiments to generate transient spin accumulation. Unlike spin accumulation in equilibrium NM metals that occurs due to spin transport at the Fermi energy, transient spin accumulation involves highly nonequilibrium hot electrons well above the Fermi level. To date, the diffusion and dissipation of this transient spin accumulation has not been well studied. Using the superdiffusive spin transport model, we demonstrate how spin accumulation is generated in NM metals after laser excitation in an FM|NM bilayer. The spin accumulation shows an exponential decay from the FM|NM interface, with the decay length increasing to the maximum value and then decreasing until saturation. By analyzing the ultrafast dynamics of laser-excited hot electrons, the effective mean free path, which can be characterized by the averaged product of the group velocity and lifetime of hot electrons, is found to play a key role. The interface reflectivity has little influence on the spin accumulation in NM metals. Our calculated results are in qualitative agreement with recent experiments.
A computational method based on a first-principles multiscale simulation has been used for calculating the optical response and the ablation threshold of an optical material irradiated with an ultrashort intense laser pulse. The method employs Maxwells equations to describe laser pulse propagation and time-dependent density functional theory to describe the generation of conduction band electrons in an optical medium. Optical properties, such as reflectance and absorption, were investigated for laser intensities in the range $10^{10} , mathrm{W/cm^{2}}$ to $2 times 10^{15} , mathrm{W/cm^{2}}$ based on the theory of generation and spatial distribution of the conduction band electrons. The method was applied to investigate the changes in the optical reflectance of $alpha$-quartz bulk, half-wavelength thin-film and quarter-wavelength thin-film and to estimate their ablation thresholds. Despite the adiabatic local density approximation used in calculating the exchange--correlation potential, the reflectance and the ablation threshold obtained from our method agree well with the previous theoretical and experimental results. The method can be applied to estimate the ablation thresholds for optical materials in general. The ablation threshold data can be used to design ultra-broadband high-damage-threshold coating structures.