Magneto-Elastic Coupling to Coherent Acoustic Phonon Modes in Ferrimagnetic Insulator GdTiO$_3$

TL;DR

This study explores the magneto-elastic coupling in GdTiO3, revealing how coherent acoustic phonons interact with magnetic order, and demonstrating potential for optical control of magnetic states in this quantum material.

Contribution

It uncovers the strong dependence of acoustic phonon amplitude on magnetic order and highlights the strain-mediated mechanism for light-magnetic coupling in GdTiO3.

Findings

Magnetic phase transition signatures in reflectivity and Kerr signals.

Optical perturbation of ferrimagnetic order on spin-lattice timescales.

Strong magneto-elastic coupling evidenced by acoustic mode amplitude dependence.

Abstract

In this work we investigate single crystal GdTiO$_{3}$, a promising candidate material for Floquet engineering and magnetic control, using ultrafast optical pump-probe reflectivity and magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopy. GdTiO${}_{3}$ is a Mott-Hubbard insulator with a ferrimagnetic and orbitally ordered ground state (\textit{T${}_{C}$} = 32 K). We observe multiple signatures of the magnetic phase transition in the photoinduced reflectivity signal, in response to above band-gap 660 nm excitation. Magnetic dynamics measured via Kerr spectroscopy reveal optical perturbation of the ferrimagnetic order on spin-lattice coupling timescales, highlighting the competition between the Gd${}^{3+}$ and Ti${}^{3+}$ magnetic sub-lattices. Furthermore, a strong coherent oscillation is present in the reflection and Kerr dynamics, attributable to an acoustic strain wave launched by the pump pulse. The amplitude of this acoustic mode is highly dependent on the magnetic order of the system, growing sharply in magnitude at \textit{T${}_{C}$}, indicative of strong magneto-elastic coupling. The driving mechanism, involving strain-induced modification of the magnetic exchange interaction, implies an indirect method of coupling light to the magnetic degrees of freedom and emphasizes the potential of GdTiO${}_{3}$ as a tunable quantum material.