Domain wall dynamics driven by a transient laser-induced magnetisation

Abstract

One of the fundamental effects of the laser-matter interaction is the appearance of an induced transient magnetisation. While the underlying phenomena differ in their microscopic origin and cover a diverse array of materials, here we address a fundamental question about the possibility to drive domain-wall dynamics on the femtosecond timescale of the exchange interactions solely by longitudinal changes of the magnetic moments. We verify the viability of this hypothesis in the case of a generic ferromagnetic system described in the framework of the high-temperature micromagnetic model based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation. The effect is investigated in a 1D model at constant temperature as well as in a full micromagnetic framework considering realistic laser-induced heating. Our results demonstrate that domain-wall deformation in a femtosecond timeframe leads to the displacement of the wall on a larger timescale up to nanoseconds accompanied by a release of excess energy in the form of spin waves. The domain wall deformation leads to the appearance of a magnetisation gradient across the wall which promotes the motion towards the region consisting of spins with decreased magnetisation length. The total displacement is enhanced at larger temperatures and smaller damping due to an increase of the longitudinal relaxation time which ensures the longer presence of the induced magnetisation gradient. We also demonstrate an enhanced domain wall motion in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction attributed to augmented magnonic torques. Our results are important towards the understanding of ultrafast magnetism phenomena on the sub-picosecond timescale.