Ultrafast optical excitation of coherent magnons in antiferromagnetic NiO

In experiment and theory, we resolve the mechanism of ultrafast optical magnon excitation in antiferromagnetic NiO. We employ time-resolved optical two-color pump-probe measurements to study the coherent nonthermal spin dynamics. Optical pumping and probing with linearly and circularly polarized light along the optic axis of the NiO crystal scrutinizes the mechanism behind the ultrafast magnon excitation. A phenomenological symmetry-based theory links these experimental results to expressions for the optically induced magnetization via the inverse Faraday effect and the inverse Cotton-Mouton effect. We obtain striking agreement between experiment and theory that, furthermore, allows us to extract information about the spin domain distribution. We also find that in NiO the energy transfer into the magnon mode via the inverse Cotton-Mouton effect is about three orders of magnitude more efficient than via the inverse Faraday effect.