Measurement of magnetostatic mode excitation and relaxation in Permalloy films using scanning Kerr imaging

Summary form only given. This work presents detailed spatially resolved measurements of magnetostatic modes using a recently reported technique based on scanning Kerr microscopy. This technique achieves sub-micron spatial resolution, a temporal resolution of less than 5 ps and a signal to noise ratio of approximately 2/spl times/10/sup -4/ deg/Hz/sup 0.5/. This permits a complete description of mode propagation containing both the amplitude and the relative phase of the magnetization response at all points in the magnetic sample. Phase information is crucial to understanding the damping behavior of each mode in the system.