Role of spatiotemporal nonuniformities in laser-induced magnetization precession damping

Laser-induced magnetization precession measurements in ferromagnets often reveal an anomalous decrease in damping time near a field-induced second-order spin-orientation transition, a behavior that cannot be described by the linearized Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. Here, we demonstrate that this anomaly is not a material property but results from interference of precessing local magnetizations within the inhomogeneously excited region. By combining pump–probe experiments, analytical modeling that accounts for finite pump and probe spot sizes, and micromagnetic simulations, we show that the standard macrospin approach fails to capture the observed dynamics. The inhomogeneous relaxation of magnetic parameters within the excitation area distorts the measured precession envelope, while dipole fields give rise to a temporally non-monotonic term in its frequency. Our results highlight the critical role of excitation locality in the vicinity of critical fields.