Speed limits of the laser-induced phase transition in FeRh

Mattern, Maximilian; Jarecki, Jasmin; Arregi Uribeetxebarria, Jon Ander; Uhlíř, Vojtěch; Rössle, Matti; Bargheer, Matias

Speed limits of the laser-induced phase transition in FeRh

Date

2024-05-01

Authors

Mattern, Maximilian

Jarecki, Jasmin

Arregi Uribeetxebarria, Jon Ander

Uhlíř, Vojtěch

Rössle, Matti

Bargheer, Matias

ORCID

0000-0002-7376-2757

0000-0002-0512-6329

Publisher

AIP Publishing

Altmetrics

Abstract

We use ultrafast x-ray diffraction and the polar time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect to study the laser-induced metamagnetic phase transition in two FeRh films with thicknesses below and above the optical penetration depth. In the thin film, we identify an intrinsic timescale for the light-induced nucleation of ferromagnetic (FM) domains in the antiferromagnetic material of 8ps, which is substantially longer than the time it takes for strain waves to traverse the film. For the inhomogeneously excited thicker film, only the optically excited near-surface part transforms within 8ps. For strong excitations, we observe an additional slow rise of the FM phase, which we experimentally relate to a growth of the FM phase into the depth of the layer by comparing the transient magnetization in frontside and backside excitation geometry. In the lower lying parts of the film, which are only excited via near-equilibrium heat transport, the FM phase emerges significantly slower than 8ps after heating above the transition temperature.

Keywords

x-ray diffraction, ultrafast x-ray diffraction

Citation

APL Materials. 2024, vol. 12, issue 5, 7 p.
https://pubs.aip.org/aip/apm/article/12/5/051124/3295280/Speed-limits-of-the-laser-induced-phase-transition

Document type

Peer-reviewed

Document version

Published version

Language of document

en

Document licence

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/