Ultrafast modification of the magnetic anisotropy in a CoTb alloy

In this thesis, we report the time evolution of first and third order of magnetic scattering from an amorphous CoTb film after a femtosecond excitation. These results are obtained by applying a resonant small angle X ray scattering at the Co magnetic absorption edge M3 via a repetitive pump probe experiments. Difference in behaviours between the first and third scattering orders was observed after 3.5 ps where a second drop of the third order intensity appears. Using suitable models, we show that this difference is due to an increase of the domain wall width separating two opposite domains. We suppose that this wall broadening is generated by the variation of the out of plane uniaxial anisotropy due to the thermal heating of the lattice by the femtosecond laser pulse. This interpretation is verified by following the uniaxial anisotropy as function of the heating temperature by doing static SQUID-VSM measurements