The Modern Problems of Ultrafast Magnetoacoustics (Review)

A review of modern lines of research in the field of ultrafast magnetoacoustics is presented. Effects of interaction of ultrashort (picosecond) acoustic pulses with a magnetic subsystem of magnetic films and particles, as well as interaction of surface acoustic waves excited by femtosecond laser pulses with magnetic nanostructures, are considered. A separate direction of modern ultrafast magnetoacoustics involves interaction of surface acoustic waves with a magnetic subsystem in planar nanostructures. The conditions of this interaction for nonuniform magnetization modes are unclear and effects of interaction of surface acoustic waves with metasurfaces have been poorly studied. A promising method of excitation and detection of surface magnetoelastic waves in metal films and planar nanostructures is to apply the “transient grating” technique, which makes it possible to use modern femtosecond lasers and has very good temporal resolution. The main results of experiments on excitation of magnetoelastic modes in films and planar periodic nanostructures upon ultrafast laser excitation are discussed and the models of magnetoelastic nonlinear dynamics obtained by researchers all over the world over the last decade have been analyzed.