Coherent control of the route of an ultrafast magnetic phase transition via low-amplitude spin precession

Time-resolved magneto-optical imaging of laser-excited rare-earth orthoferrite (SmPr)FeO3 demonstrates that a single 60 fs circularly polarized laser pulse is capable of creating a magnetic domain on a picosecond time scale with a magnetization direction determined by the helicity of light. Depending on the light intensity and sample temperature, pulses of the same helicity can create domains with opposite magnetizations. We argue that this phenomenon relies on a twofold effect of light which (i) instantaneously excites coherent low-amplitude spin precession and (ii) triggers a spin reorientation phase transition. The former dynamically breaks the equivalence between two otherwise degenerate states with opposite magnetizations in the high-temperature phase and thus controls the route of the phase transition.