Photoinduced precession of magnetization in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As

Precession of magnetization induced by pulsed optical excitation is observed in a ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As by time-resolved magneto-optical measurements. It appears as complicated oscillations of a polarization plane of linearly polarized probe pulses, but is reproduced by gyromagnetic theory incorporating an impulsive change in an effective magnetic field due to a change in the magnetic anisotropy. The shape of the impulse suggests a significant nonthermal contribution of photogenerated carriers to the change in anisotropy through spin-orbit interaction.