Wide frequencies range of spin excitations in a rare-earth Bi-doped iron garnet with a giant Faraday rotation

Ultrafast magnetization dynamics of a rare-earth Bi-doped garnet were studied using an optical pump-probe technique via the inverse Faraday effect. We observed a wide range of frequency modes of the magnetization precession, covering two orders of magnitude. The excitation efficiency of low-frequency precessions in the GHz range, together with a significant beating effect, strongly depended on the amplitude of the external magnetic field. On the contrary, high-frequency precession was independent of the external magnetic field. The obtained results may be exploited in the development of wide class of microwave and magneto-optical devices. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.