  Magnetization dynamics are strongly influenced by damping. An effective
damping constant {\alpha}eff is often determined experimentally from the
spectral linewidth of the free induction decay of the magnetization after the
system is excited to its non-equilibrium state. Such an {\alpha}eff, however,
reflects both intrinsic damping as well as inhomogeneous broadening. In this
paper we compare measurements of the magnetization dynamics in ultrathin
non-epitaxial films having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy using two
different techniques, time-resolved magneto optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE) and
hybrid optical-electrical ferromagnetic resonance (OFMR). By using an external
magnetic field that is applied at very small angles to the film plane in the
TRMOKE studies, we develop an explicit closed-form analytical expression for
the TRMOKE spectral linewidth and show how this can be used to reliably extract
the intrinsic Gilbert damping constant. The damping constant determined in this
way is in excellent agreement with that determined from the OFMR method on the
same samples. Our studies indicate that the asymptotic high-field approach that
is often used in the TRMOKE method to distinguish the intrinsic damping from
the effective damping may result in significant error, because such high
external magnetic fields are required to make this approach valid that they are
out of reach. The error becomes larger the lower is the intrinsic damping
constant, and thus may account for the anomalously high damping constants that
are often reported in TRMOKE studies. In conventional ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR) studies, inhomogeneous contributions can be readily distinguished from
intrinsic damping contributions from the magnetic field dependence of the FMR
linewidth. Using the analogous approach, we show how reliable values of the
intrinsic damping can be extracted from TRMOKE.
