Optical Probing of Rayleigh Wave Driven Magnetoacoustic Resonance

Surface acoustic waves at gigahertz frequencies are well suited to interact resonantly with spin waves in magnetostrictive materials, with the prospect of a wavelike control of magnetization reversal in spintronic devices. Directly observing the resulting spin-wave dynamics in time and space has been challenging. This study presents an elegant approach in which the rf excitation of the waves is synchronized with femtosecond probe pulses of a laser, to reveal the acoustically driven resonant excitation of magnetization dynamics, for deeper insight into the mechanisms of magnon-phonon coupling.