Ultrafast light-driven simultaneous excitation of coherent terahertz magnons and phonons in multiferroic BiFeO3

The ultrafast switching of magnetization in multiferroic materials by a femtosecond laser could provide various advantages in photonics and magnonics. An efficient approach to control the light-matter interaction is the modulation of ultrafast coherent magnons and phonons in the high-frequency range. Spontaneous Raman and infrared spectra reveal the excitation of magnons and optical phonons in multiferroic BiFeO3 in the sub-fewterahertz range. However, coherent control of such quasiparticles has not been achieved yet. In this study, we demonstrate that linearly polarized laser pulses simultaneously excite coherent magnons [out-of-plane (Psi) and in-plane (Phi) cyclone modes] and optical phonon (E mode) in BiFeO3. Experimental results in conjugation with phenomenological theory, by considering three uniformly distributed magnetic domains, reveal that impulsive stimulated Raman scattering is responsible for the generation of coherent magnons and phonons in BiFeO3. The observation of these terahertz magnon and optical phonon modes paves the way for the development of ultrafast magnetoelectro-optical devices.