  An internal anisotropy pulse field is launched by an 8.3 ps short laser
excitation, which triggers precessional magnetization dynamics of a
polycrystalline NiFe/FeMn exchange bias system on the picosecond timescale. Due
to the excitation the unidirectional anisotropy and, thus, the exchange
coupling across the interface between the ferromagnetic and the
antiferromagnetic layer is reduced, leading to a fast reduction of the exchange
bias field and to a dramatic increase of the zero-field susceptibility. The
fast optical unpinning is followed by a slower recovery of the interfacial
exchange coupling dominated by spin-lattice and heat flow relaxation with a
time constant of the order of 160 ps. The measured picosecond time evolution of
the exchange decoupling and restoration is interpreted as an anisotropy pulse
field giving rise to fast precessional magnetization dynamics of the
ferromagnetic layer. The strength of the internal pulse field and even the
initial magnetization deflection direction from the equilibrium orientation can
be controlled by the absorbed photons. The dependence of the effective Gilbert
damping on both small and large angle precessional motion was studied, yielding
that both cases can be modeled with reasonable accuracy within the
Landau-Lifshitz and Gilbert framework.
