Magnetization Dynamics at Elevated Temperatures

Abstract

The area of ultrafast (sub-nanosecond) magnetization dynamics of ferromagnetic elements and thin films, usually driven by a strong femtosecond laser pulse, has experienced intense research interest. In this dissertation, laser-induced demagnetization is theoretically studied by taking into account interactions among electrons, spins, and lattice. We propose a microscopic approach under the three temperature framework and derive the equations that govern the demagnetization at arbitrary temperatures.To address the question of magnetization reversal at high temperatures, the conventional Landau-Lifshitz equation is obviously unsatisfactory, since it fails to describe the longitudinal relaxation. So by using the equation of motion for the quantum density matrix within the instantaneous local relaxation time approximation, we propose an effective equation that is capable of addressing magnetization dynamics for a wide range of temperatures. The longitudinal and transverse relaxations are analyzed, magnetization reversal processes near Curie temperatures is also studied. Furthermore, we compared our derived Self-consistent Bloch equation and Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation in detail. Finally, the demagnetzation dynamics for ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic alloys is studied by solving the Self-consistent Bloch equation.