2016/09/02 by Richard B. Wilson, Wilson, Richard B, Charles‐Henri Lambert +9
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic Properties of Alloys #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1609.00648
openalex publication_date 2016/09/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The temperature evolution of GdFeCo electrons following optical heating plays\na key role in all optical switching of GdFeCo and is primarily governed by the\nstrength of coupling between electrons and phonons. Typically, the strength of\nelectron-phonon coupling in a metal is deduced by monitoring changes in\nreflectance following optical heating and then analyzing the transient\nreflectance with a simple two-temperature thermal model. In a magnetic metal,\nthe change in reflectance cannot be assumed to depend only the electron and\nphonon temperatures because a metal's reflectance also depends on the\nmagnetization. To deduce the electron-phonon coupling constant in GdFeCo, we\nanalyze thermal transport in Au and GdFeCo bilayers following optical heating\nof the GdFeCo electrons. We use the reflectance of the Au layer to monitor the\ntemperature evolution of the Au phonons. By interpreting the response of the\nbilayer to heating with a thermal model, we determine the electron-phonon\ncoupling constant in GdFeCo to be 6 x 1017 W/(m3-K) corresponding to an\nelectron-phonon relaxation time in GdFeCo of ~150 fs.\n