We performed ultrafast time-resolved near-infrared pump, resonant soft X-ray diffraction probe measurements to investigate the coupling between the photoexcited electronic system and the spin cycloid magnetic order in multiferroic TbMnO3 at low tempe
ratures. We observe melting of the long range antiferromagnetic order at low excitation fluences with a decay time constant of 22.3 +- 1.1 ps, which is much slower than the ~1 ps melting times previously observed in other systems. To explain the data we propose a simple model of the melting process where the pump laser pulse directly excites the electronic system, which then leads to an increase in the effective temperature of the spin system via a slower relaxation mechanism. Despite this apparent increase in the effective spin temperature, we do not observe changes in the wavevector q of the antiferromagnetic spin order that would typically correlate with an increase in temperature under equilibrium conditions. We suggest that this behavior results from the extremely low magnon group velocity that hinders a change in the spin-spiral wavevector on these time scales.
We investigate the structural and magnetic origins of the unusual ultrafast second-harmonicgeneration (SHG) response of femtosecond-laser-excited nickel oxide (NiO) previously attributed to oscillatory reorientation dynamics of the magnetic structure
induced by d-d excitations. Using time-resolved x-ray diffraction from the (3/2 3/2 3/2) magnetic planes, we show that changes in the magnitude of the magnetic structure factor following ultrafast optical excitation are limited to $Delta<F_m>/<F_m>$ = 1.5% in the first 30 ps. An extended investigation of the ultrafast SHG response reveals a strong dependence on wavelength as well as characteristic echoes, both of which give evidence for an acoustic origin of the dynamics. We therefore propose an alternative mechanism for the SHG response based on perturbations of the nonlinear susceptibility via optically induced strain in a spatially confined medium. In this model, the two observed oscillation periods can be understood as the times required for an acoustic strain wave to traverse one coherence length of the SHG process in either the collinear or anti-collinear geometries.
