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Laser pulse induced terahertz (THz) emission from Ta/${({\mathrm{Co}}_{x}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x})}_{80}{\mathrm{B}}_{20}$/MgO thin films, with varying compositions $x$ and annealing temperatures, is investigated. With increasing annealing temperature, the THz emission intensity exhibits significant dependence on $x$, with maxima at $x$ of 0.1--0.3. The $x$ dependence of the THz emission originated from the composition dependence of the spin currents induced in ${\mathrm{Co}}_{x}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}$ formed by the crystallization of amorphous CoFeB after the annealing. The origin of the laser-induced spin current is qualitatively discussed in terms of a ballistic transport of hot electrons and a spin-dependent Seebeck effect with different compositions.

Focused pulse-laser-induced propagating magnetostatic surface spin waves (MSSWs) were investigated using an all-optical space-time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect microscope in 20-nm-thick permalloy thin films to clarify reciprocity and symmetry of MSSW emission. The microscope setup was constructed with variable direction of the applied magnetic field, and the corresponding angular dependence was examined. MSSWs were reciprocally emitted from the laser spot, in contrast to the nonreciprocal emission obtained by the antenna method. Specifically, the observed excitation amplitude and phase were independent of the propagation and magnetization directions within experimental error. By transforming the data into wave number--frequency space, the MSSW dispersion relation was clearly identified within the wave number of 2--3 rad/$\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ and frequency of 10 GHz. These observations are consistent with the model of ultrafast modulation of out-of-plane shape magnetic anisotropy inside the focused laser spot. In addition to confirming the symmetric and reciprocal emission of laser-induced MSSWs, the study demonstrated that this technique can provide all-optical microscopic spectroscopy for MSSW in metals, such as Brillouin light-scattering technique.

We propose theoretically an active material for electromagnetic radiation with frequency of GHz by use of spin-torque oscillators. The origin of the amplification is the energy supplied to the magnetization by the injected current. We show that close to a resonance with current-driven magnetization, the imaginary part of magnetic permeability becomes indeed negative for either of the two circular polarizations, resulting in negative imaginary part of refractive index. Besides, the real part of the refractive index is also manipulated by the current. Our system thus realizes an active filter to obtain circular polarized radiation and/or an electromagnetic metamaterial having negative refractive index, both controlled electrically.