Femtosecond spectroscopy of multiferroic BiFeO₃ thin films

BiFeO3 is a multiferroic material characterized by a room temperature antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric phase and a 2.6eV bandgap. Terahertz emission from BiFeO3 thin films following excitation above bandgap by UV femtosecond pulses has been observed [1]. The THz emission is related to ultrafast depolarization of the ferroelectric order in the film as observed from the hysteresis of the amplitude of the emitted THz signal as a function of a biasing electric field. Experiments probing the electronic and lattice dynamics with sub-picosecond resolution are an essential step towards identifying the intrinsic mechanism responsible for depolarization and THz emission in BiFeO3. In this study we investigate the carrier dynamics of epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films using degenerate pump-probe spectroscopy at 400 nm with sub-50 fs pulses. We have observed a 5 THz coherent optical phonon oscillation consistent with the A1 phonon mode as observed in Raman spectroscopy [2]. In this talk, the relation of the observed dynamics to the THz emission will be discussed. [1] D.S. Rana, et al., Advanced Materials 21, 2881 (2009). [2] S. Kamba, et al, Phys. Rev. B 75, 024403 (2007).