We generate in-plane magnetoelastic waves in nickel films using the all-optical transient grating technique. When performed on amorphous glass substrates, two dominant magnetoelastic excitations can be resonantly driven by the underlying elastic distortions, the Rayleigh Surface Acoustic Wave and the Surface Skimming Longitudinal Wave. An applied field, oriented in the sample plane, selectively tunes the coupling between magnetic precession and one of the elastic waves, thus demonstrating selective excitation of coexisting, large amplitude magnetoelastic waves. Analytical calculations based on the Green's function approach corroborate the generation of the non-equilibrium surface acoustic transients.
@article{arxiv.1601.04350,
title = {Ultrafast Magnetoelastic Probing of Surface Acoustic Transients},
author = {J. Janušonis and C. L. Chang and T. Jansma and A. Gatilova and A. M. Lomonosov and V. Shalagatskyi and V. S. Vlasov and V. V. Temnov and R. I. Tobey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.04350},
year = {2016}
}