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Optical Control Of Ultrafast Spin -Wave Relaxation By Magnetic Anisotropy In A Ferromagnet, Kevin James Smith
Optical Control Of Ultrafast Spin -Wave Relaxation By Magnetic Anisotropy In A Ferromagnet, Kevin James Smith
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This thesis presents an investigation of the damping of spin waves in ferromagnetic Au(3 nm)/Ni(10 nm)/MgO(001) thin films using the time-resolved Magneto-optical Kerr Effect (TR-MOKE) and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) techniques. In the optical measurements, a 150 fs, 800 nm laser beam pulse is split into pump and probe components. The pump pulse, containing most of the beam energy, thermally excites coherent spin precession. The weaker probe pulse, time-delayed by a variable beam path, captures the magnetization dynamics via the polar MOKE effect, and oscillations are observed as a function of external field amplitude and direction. The extracted precession frequency is …