Anisotropic Ultrafast Spin Dynamics in Epitaxial Cobalt

Abstract

We investigate the ultrafast spin dynamics in an epitaxial hcp(1100) cobalt thin film. By performing pump-probe magneto-optical measurements with the magnetization along either the easy or hard magnetic axis, we determine the demagnetization and recovery times for the two axes. We observe a 35% slower dynamics along the easy magnetization axis, which we attribute to magneto-crystalline anisotropy of the electron-phonon coupling, supported by our ab initio calculations. This points towards an unambiguous and previously undisclosed role of anisotropic electron-lattice coupling in ultrafast magnetism.

Main text: 6 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental Material: 6 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Super-Diffusive Spin-Transport as a Mechanism of Ultrafast Demagnetization
• All-optical control of ferromagnetic thin films and nanostructures
• The influence of photon angular momentum on ultrafast spin dynamics in Nickel
• Giant anisotropy of Gilbert damping in epitaxial CoFe films
• Connecting the timescales in picosecond remagnetization experiments

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Inertial spin dynamics in epitaxial cobalt films
• Evidence of extreme domain wall speeds under ultrafast optical excitation
• Intrinsic energy flow in laser-excited 3$d$ ferromagnets
• Heat-conserving three-temperature model for ultrafast demagnetization of 3d ferromagnets
• Terahertz charge and spin transport in metallic ferromagnets: the role of crystalline and magnetic order
• Ultrafast dynamics of moments in bulk ferromagnets