  We present a comprehensive experimental and numerical study of magnetization
dynamics triggered in a thin metallic film by single-cycle terahertz pulses of
$\sim20$ MV/m electric field amplitude and $\sim1$ ps duration. The
experimental dynamics is probed using the femtosecond magneto-optical Kerr
effect (MOKE), and it is reproduced numerically using macrospin simulations.
The magnetization dynamics can be decomposed in three distinct processes: a
coherent precession of the magnetization around the terahertz magnetic field,
an ultrafast demagnetization that suddenly changes the anisotropy of the film,
and a uniform precession around the equilibrium effective field that is relaxed
on the nanosecond time scale, consistent with a Gilbert damping process.
Macrospin simulations quantitatively reproduce the observed dynamics, and allow
us to predict that novel nonlinear magnetization dynamics regimes can be
attained with existing table-top terahertz sources.
