MnF2 is a prototype insulating antiferromagnet, predicted to belong to the "altermagnet" family, in which anisotropic magnon dispersion is expected [1]. We propose an all-optical approach for the magnon generation, where the material is excited incoherently by an adjacent thin metallic layer heated by ultrafast laser pulses [2]. Using TR-MOKE method, we study the dynamical response of the MnF2/Pt system.
[1] L.S. et al, Phys. Rev. X 12,4 (2022).
[2]E.S. et al., New J. Phys. 25, 033016 (2022).