Issue EPL Volume 86, Number 5, June 2009 Article Number 57003 Number of page(s) 6 Section Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/86/57003 Published online 22 June 2009

EPL, 86 (2009) 57003
DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/86/57003

Ultrafast photoinduced phase separation dynamics in Pr_0.6Ca_0.4MnO₃ thin films

T. Mertelj^{1, 2}, R. Yusupov¹, A. Gradišek¹, M. Filippi³, W. Prellier³ and D. Mihailovic<sup>1, 2

1</sup>   Jozef Stefan Institute - Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, EU
²   Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, EU
³   Laboratoire CRISMAT, CNRS UMR 6508 - Bd du Marechal Juin, F-14050 Caen Cedex, France, EU

tomaz.mertelj@ijs.si

received 17 October 2008; accepted in final form 22 May 2009; published June 2009
published online 22 June 2009

Abstract
The time-resolved magnetooptical Kerr effect in the substrate-strain-induced insulating ferromagnetic phase in (Pr_0.6Ca_0.4)MnO₃ thin films on two different substrates was measured in a magnetic field up to 1.1 T. The photoinduced Kerr rotation and ellipticity show remarkably different magnetic-field dependence. From the comparison of the magnetic-field dependences of the photoinduced and static Kerr rotation and ellipticity we conclude that a transient ferromagnetic metallic phase, embedded within the insulating ferromagnetic phase, is created upon the photoexcitation at low temperatures. A comparison of temporal dependence of the photoinduced Kerr signals with the photoinduced reflectivity indicates that the change of the fractions of the phases takes place on a timescale of ten picoseconds independent of the substrate.

PACS
78.47.jc - Time resolved spectroscopy (1 > ps).
78.20.Ls - Magnetooptical effects.
75.70.Ak - Magnetic properties of monolayers and thin films.

© EPLA 2009

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