Control of the Ultrafast Photoinduced Magnetization across the Morin Transition in DyFeO3

Excitation of the collinear compensated antiferromagnet DyFeO3 with a single 60 fs laser pulse triggers a phase transition across the Morin point into a noncollinear spin state with a net magnetization. Time-resolved imaging of the magnetization dynamics of this process reveals that the pulse first excites the spin oscillations upon damping of which the noncollinear spin state emerges. The sign of the photoinduced magnetization is defined by the relative orientation of the pump polarization and the direction of the antiferromagnetic vector in the initial collinear spin state.