Ultrafast time-resolved magneto-optical imaging of all-optical switching in GdFeCo with femtosecond time-resolution and a μm spatial-resolution

We developed an ultrafast time-resolved magneto-optical (MO) imaging system with several millidegree resolution of light polarization angle, 100 fs time-resolution, and a micrometer spatial resolution. A CCD camera with about 106 pixels is used for detection and MO images with an absolute angle of the light polarization are acquired by the rotating analyzer method. By optimizing the analysis procedure with a least square method and the help of graphical processor units, this novel system significantly improves the speed for MO imaging, allowing to obtain a MO map of a sample within 15 s. To demonstrate the strength of the technique, we applied the method in a pump-and-probe experiment of all-optical switching in a GdFeCo sample in which we were able to detect temporal evolution of the MO images with sub-picosecond resolution.