Magneto-optic response of the metallic antiferromagnet Fe2As to ultrafast temperature excursions

Abstract

The linear magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is often used to probe magnetism of ferromagnetic materials, but MOKE cannot be applied to collinear antiferromagnets (AFs) due to the cancellation of sub-lattice magnetization. Magneto-optical constants that are quadratic in magnetization, however, provide an approach for studying AFs on picosecond time scales. Here, we combine transient measurements of optical reflectivity and birefringence to study the linear optical response of Fe$_{2}$As to small ultrafast temperature excursions. We performed temperature dependent pump-probe measurements on crystallographically isotropic (001) and anisotropic (010) faces of Fe$_{2}$As bulk crystals. We find the largest optical signals arise from changes in the index of refraction along the $z$-axis, i.e. perpendicular to the N\'eel vector. Both real and imaginary parts of the time-resolved optical birefringence rotation signal approximately follow the temperature dependence of the magnetic heat capacity, as expected if the changes in dielectric constants are dominated by contributions of exchange interactions to the dielectric constant. We conclude that under our experimental conditions, changes in the exchange interaction contribute more strongly to the temperature dependence of the magneto-optic constants than the Voigt effect.