Excitation of coherent optical phonons in iron garnet by femtosecond laser pulses.

We employed femtosecond pump-probe technique to investigate the dynamics of coherent optical phonons in iron garnet. A phenomenological symmetry-based consideration reveals that oscillations of the terahertz T 2g mode are excited. Selective excitation by a linearly polarized pump and detection by a circularly polarized probe confirm that impulsive stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS) is the driving force for the coherent phonons. Experimental results obtained from ISRS measurements reveal excellent agreement with spontaneous Raman spectroscopy data, analyzed by considering the symmetry of the phonon modes and corresponding excitation and detection selection rules.