Evidence of electron-phonon mediated spin flip as driving mechanism for ultrafast magnetization dynamics in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>3</mml:mn><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math> ferromagnets
Theodor Griepe, Unai Atxitia
Abstract
Despite intense experimental effort, theoretical proposals, and modeling approaches, a lack of consensus exists about the intrinsic mechanisms driving ultrafast magnetization dynamics in $3d$ ferromagnets. In this Letter, we find evidence of an electron-phonon mediated spin flip as the driving mechanism for the ultrafast magnetization dynamics in all three $3d$ ferromagnets: nickel, iron, and cobalt. We use a microscopic three-temperature model with parameters calculated from first principles, which has been validated by a direct comparison to the electron and lattice dynamics extracted from previous experiments. By a direct comparison to the experimentally measured magnetization dynamics for different laser fluences, we determine the spin-flip probability of each material. We find robust evidence that relatively small values of the spin-flip probability enable ultrafast demagnetization in all three $3d$ ferromagnets.