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Experimental investigations of ultrafast magnetization dynamics increasingly employ resonant magnetic spectroscopy in the ultraviolet spectral range. Besides allowing to disentangle the element-specific transient response of functional magnetic systems, these techniques also promise to access attosecond to few-femtosecond dynamics of spin excitations. Here, we report on a systematic study of transient magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) on the transition metals Fe, Co and Ni as well as on a FeNi and GdFe alloy and reveal a delayed onset between the electronic and magnetic response. Supported by \textit{ab-initio} calculations, we attribute our observation to a transient energy shift of the absorption and MCD spectra at the corresponding elemental resonances due to non-equilibrium changes of electron occupations., Comment: 8 figures

The interaction of intense laser pulses with nano-scale particles leads to the production of high-energy electrons, ions, neutral atoms, neutrons and photons. Up to now, investigations have focused on near-infrared to X-ray laser pulses consisting of many optical cycles. Here we study strong-field ionization of rare-gas clusters ($10^3$ to $10^5$ atoms) using two-cycle 1.8~$\mu$m laser pulses to access a new interaction regime in the limit where the electron dynamics are dominated by the laser field and the cluster atoms do not have time to move significantly. The emission of fast electrons with kinetic energies exceeding 3keV is observed using laser pulses with a wavelength of 1.8~$\mu$m and an intensity of $1\times 10^{15}$~W/cm$^2$, whereas only electrons below 500eV are observed at 800nm using a similar intensity and pulse duration. Fast electrons are preferentially emitted along the laser polarization direction, showing that they are driven out from the cluster by the laser field. In addition to direct electron emission, an electron rescattering plateau is observed. Scaling to even longer wavelengths is expected to result in a highly directional current of energetic electrons on a few-femtosecond timescale., Comment: Scientific Reports, accepted