Magneto-optics and Laser-Induced Dynamics of Metallic Thin Films

Optical tools have played an important role in the field of thin film magnetism, and the spintronics that has emerged from it. Initially, the role of optics was limited to providing sensitive and versatile magneto-optical probes of the magnetic behavior. In the 1990s, it became clear that ultrashort laser pulses can also be successfully used in a reverse approach to manipulate magnetic order at down to femtosecond time scales, an approach we refer to as opto-magnetism. This chapter provides a basic introduction and a review of developments in both magneto-optics and opto-magnetism, as mostly applied to metallic thin film ferri-and ferromagnetic systems. In the second part of the chapter, after a conceptual introduction of ultrafast laser-induced magnetization dynamics, three processes are treated in more detail: laser-induced loss of magnetic order, all-optical switching of magnetization, and pulsed laser-induced spin currents.