Magnetoelastic coupling to coherent acoustic phonon modes in the ferrimagnetic insulator GdTiO3

In this work we investigate single crystal GdTiO3, a promising candidate material for Floquet engineering and magnetic control, using ultrafast optical pump-probe reflectivity and magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopy. GdTiO3 is a Mott-Hubbard insulator with a ferrimagnetic and orbitally ordered ground state (T-C = 32 K). We observe multiple signatures of the magnetic phase transition in the photoinduced reflectivity signal, in response to above band-gap 660-nm excitation. Magnetic dynamics measured via Kerr spectroscopy reveal optical perturbation of the ferrimagnetic order on spin-lattice coupling timescales, highlighting the competition between the Gd3+ and Ti3+ magnetic sub-lattices. Furthermore, a strong coherent oscillation is present in the reflection and Kerr dynamics, attributable to an acoustic strain wave launched by the pump pulse. The amplitude of this acoustic mode is highly dependent on the magnetic order of the system, growing sharply in magnitude at T-C, indicative of strong magneto-elastic coupling. The driving mechanism, involving strain-induced modification of the magnetic exchange interaction, implies an indirect method of coupling light to the magnetic degrees of freedom and emphasizes the potential of GdTiO3 as a tunable quantum material.