Thickness dependent terahertz emission from cobalt thin films

When cobalt thin films are illuminated with femtosecond laser pulses, we observe the emission of terahertz pulses. For a cobalt film thickness less than about 40 nm, the THz electric field direction rotates when the sample is rotated about the surface normal. This azimuthal angle-dependent emission is consistent with the assumption that laser-induced changes in an in-plane magnetization are responsible for the emission. For thicker layers, however, we observe the development of an azimuthal angle-independent contribution to the THz emission which we attribute to laser-induced changes in an out-of-plane magnetization component. We show that the relative contribution of this component grows when the cobalt film thickness increases. Our observations are supported by magnetic force microscopy measurements which show that for film thicknesses below 40 nm, the magnetization is predominantly in-plane whereas for thicknesses larger than 40 nm, an out-of-plane magnetization component develops. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America