Observations of laser induced magnetization dynamics in Co/Pd multilayers with coherent x-ray scattering

We report on time-resolved coherent x-ray scattering experiments of laser induced magnetization dynamics in Co/Pd multilayers with a high repetition rate optical pump x-ray probe setup. Starting from a multi-domain ground state, the magnetization is uniformly reduced after excitation by an intense 50 fs laser pulse. Using the normalized time correlation, we study the magnetization recovery on a picosecond timescale. The dynamic scattering intensity is separated into an elastic portion at length scales above 65 nm, which retains memory of the initial domain magnetization, and a fluctuating portion at smaller length scales corresponding to domain boundary motion during recovery. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3670305]