Time-resolved carrier dynamics and electron-phonon coupling strength in proximized weak ferromagnet-superconductor nanobilayers

We present our femtosecond optical pump-probe studies of proximized ferromagnet-superconductor nanobilayers. The weak ferromagnetic nature of a thin NiCu film makes it possible to observe the dynamics of the nonequilibrium carriers through the near-surface optical reflectivity change measurements. The subpicosecond biexponential reflectivity decay has been identified as electron-phonon Debye and acoustic phonon relaxation times, and the decay of Debye phonons versus temperature dependence was used to evaluate the electron-phonon coupling constants for both the pure Nb and proximized Nb/NiCu heterostructures down to low temperatures. We have also demonstrated that the NiCu overlay on top of Nb dramatically reduced the slow, bolometric component of the photoresponse component, making such bilayers attractive for future radiation detector applications.