Abstract:We have investigated ultrafast quenching of the Tb4f magnetic order in Co 74 Tb 26 alloys, induced by femtosecond hot-electrons pulses. The hot-electron pulses were produced in specific non-magnetic capping layers by infrared fs laser pulses. Our experimental results show that sub-picosecond dynamics of Tb4f magnetic moments can be induced by nonthermal and thermal hot-electrons. We further demonstrate that the demagnetization efficiencies of non-thermal and thermal hot electrons are similar. However, the characteristic demagnetization times show values of 0.35 ps for non-thermal hot-electrons excitations and 1.2 ps for thermal hot-electrons excitations. We explain this temporal elongation by the propagation time of thermal hot-electrons through the 15 nm thick CoTb film.
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A. Introduction:Determining the ultimate speed for deterministic control of magnetization manipulation is a hot-topic in modern magnetism, mainly due to technological application in data manipulation [1]. In this context, the discovery in 1996 [2] of ultrafast magnetization quenching upon femtosecond laser excitation has driven intensive experimental and theoretical works [3]. In the frame of the thermodynamic 3 temperatures model (3TM), the laser pulse injects its energy in the electronic system that relaxes due to the coupling with the lattice (electronphonon coupling) and with the spins (electrons-spin coupling) [2]. At the sub-picosecond time scale, the actual phenomenological model as proposed by Beaurepaire et al. does neither address the conservation of the angular momentum nor the microscopic mechanisms driving the dissipation of the angular momentum [2]. However, both aspects are heavily debated in many experimental and theoretical works. In 2009, Koopmans et al. proposed a microscopic 3TM, in which spin-flips resulting from the collision between laser-excited electrons with phonons and/or impurities have been introduced to account for the angular momentum conservation [4]. Even though this model accurately reproduced some trends of the demagnetization in transition metal [5,6], rare-earth elements [4] and in many magnetic alloys [7][8][9], doubts have been casted upon the efficiency of spin-flip scattering in ultrafast demagnetization [10][11]. Alternatively, the transport of spin-polarized hot-electrons has been proposed to explain ultrafast demagnetization [12,13,14]. In metals, the pump IR pulses create a strongly out-of-equilibrium electronic distribution called the "non-thermal hotelectrons". These non-thermal hot-electrons can propagate at the Fermi velocity over tens of nanometers. Due to electron-electron collisions, the non-thermal hot-electrons reach an internal equilibrium characterized by a Fermi-Dirac distribution, called "thermal hotelectrons". Malinowski et al. [12] proposed a ballistic transport of spin-polarized hot-electrons as an efficient channel for angular momentum dissipation during the ultrafast demagnetization. Within this model the different amplitudes and time scales which were experimentally obse...