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arXiv · 1701.05376

Signatures of relativistic spin-light coupling in ultrafast magneto-optical pump-probe experiments

Ritwik Mondal·Marco Berritta·Peter M. Oppeneer
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Abstract

Femtosecond magneto-optical pump-probe measurements of ultrafast demagnetization show an intriguing difference in the first 100 fs of the magneto-optical Kerr response depending on whether the polarization of the pump and probe beams are in parallel or perpendicular configuration [Bigot et al., Nature Phys. 5, 515 (2009)]. Starting from a most general relativistic Hamiltonian we focus on the ultra-relativistic light-spin interaction and show that this coupling term leads to different light-induced opto-magnetic fields when pump and probe polarization are parallel and perpendicular to each other, providing thus an explanation for the measurements. We also analyze other pump-probe configurations where the pump laser is circularly polarized and the employed probe contains only linearly polarized light and show that similar opto-magnetic effects can be anticipated.

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Ritwik Mondal, Marco Berritta, Peter M. Oppeneer. 2017-01-20. Signatures of relativistic spin-light coupling in ultrafast magneto-optical pump-probe experiments. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648x%2Faa68ea

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