Ultrafast heat transport in nanoscale metal multilayers is of great interest in the context of optically induced demagnetization, remagnetization and switching. If the penetration depth of light exceeds the bilayer thickness, layer-specific information is unavailable from optical probes. Femtosecond diffraction experiments provide unique experimental access to heat transport over single digit nanometer distances. Here, we investigate the structural response and the energy flow in the ultrathin double-layer system: gold on ferromagnetic nickel. Even though the excitation pulse is incident from the Au side, we observe a very rapid heating of the Ni lattice, whereas the Au lattice initially remains cold. The subsequent heat transfer from Ni to the Au lattice is found to be two orders of magnitude slower than predicted by the conventional heat equation and much slower than electron–phonon coupling times in Au. We present a simplified model calculation highlighting the relevant thermophysical quantities.

We present a temperature and fluence dependent Ultrafast X-Ray Diffraction study of a laser-heated antiferromagnetic dysprosium thin film. The loss of antiferromagnetic order is evidenced by a pronounced lattice contraction. We devise a method to determine the energy flow between the phonon and spin system from calibrated Bragg peak positions in thermal equilibrium. Reestablishing the magnetic order is much slower than the cooling of the lattice, especially around the Néel temperature. Despite the pronounced magnetostriction, the transfer of energy from the spin system to the phonons in Dy is slow after the spin-order is lost.

When the spatial dimensions of metallic heterostructures shrink below the mean free path of its conduction electrons, the transport of electrons and hence the transport of thermal energy by electrons continuously changes from diffusive to ballistic. Electron-phonon coupling sets the mean free path to the nanoscale and the time for equilibration of electron and lattice temperatures to the picosecond range. A particularly intriguing situation occurs in trilayer heterostructures combining metals with very different electronphonon coupling strength: Heat energy deposited in few atomic layers of Pt is transported into a nanometric Ni film, which is heated more than the Cu film through which the heat is released. Femtosecond pump-probe experiments with hard X-ray pulses provide a layer-specific probe of the heat energy. A purely diffusive two-temperature model with increased thermal conductivity of hot electrons excellently reproduces the observed signals from all three layers. At the time when the Ni lattice is maximally heated, no significant heat has entered the Cu lattice. This phenomenon would be enhanced in thinner layers where ballistic transport dominates. In this context it is shown that purely diffusive transport can lead to a linear time-to-length dependence that must not be misinterpreted as ballistic transport.

Optical excitation of spin-ordered rare earth metals triggers a complex response of the crystal lattice since expansive stresses from electron and phonon excitations compete with a contractive stress induced by spin disorder. Using ultrafast x-ray diffraction experiments, we study the layer specific strain response of a dysprosium film within a metallic heterostructure upon femtosecond laser-excitation. The elastic and diffusive transport of energy to an adjacent, non-excited detection layer clearly separates the contributions of strain pulses and thermal excitations in the time domain. We find that energy transfer processes to magnetic excitations significantly modify the observed conventional bipolar strain wave into a unipolar pulse. By modeling the spin system as a saturable energy reservoir that generates substantial contractive stress on ultrafast timescales, we can reproduce the observed strain response and estimate the time- and space dependent magnetic stress. The saturation of the magnetic stress contribution yields a non-monotonous total stress within the nanolayer, which leads to unconventional picosecond strain pulses.