Photo-induced 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 polarization plane of linearly-polarized probe pulses, but is reproduced by gyromagnetic theory incorporating an impulsive change in an effective magnetic field due to changes in magnetic anisotropy. It is inferred from the shape of the impulse that the changes in anisotropy result from non-equilibrium carrier population: cooling of hot photo-carriers and subsequent annihilation of photo-carriers.