Abstract
Our theoretical analysis shows that a femtosecond laser pulse can efficiently launch magnetization dynamics of ions in and . Excitation of electrons from the ground state to the low-lying electronic level of ions by circularly or linearly polarized light can be seen as a result of an effective magnetic field acting on the magnetic moments of the rare-earth ions. It is shown that the launched magnetization dynamics can be expressed as a combination of coherent oscillations of mutually parallel and mutually antiparallel magnetic moments of ions, respectively. While the antiparallel magnetic moments lie in the plane perpendicular to the wave vector of light in the medium , the parallel magnetic moments are aligned along . The magnetization dynamics depend strongly on the duration and the shape of the pumping laser pulse, as well as on the anisotropy in properties of the rare-earth ion.
- Received 11 April 2020
- Revised 14 December 2020
- Accepted 15 December 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.014423
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