It is found that subtle changes in the external magnetic field and temperature result in dramatic changes in the ultrafast response of spins to a femtosecond laser excitation in a ferrimagnetic Gd/FeCo multilayer. A total of six distinct types of spin dynamics were observed and explained by considering the spin-flop transition to the noncollinear phase and the concept of a tricritical point in the $H\text{−}T$ phase diagram. A particularly interesting type of dynamics is the exchange-driven reversal. These exchange-driven dynamics provide insights into the tricritical point, which is shown to separate two thermodynamically distinct noncollinear phases with the transition-metal magnetization pointing on adjacent sides of the anisotropy plane.

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• Faraday effect
• Ferrimagnetism
• Magnetic phase transitions
• Phase transitions
• Spin dynamics
• Ultrafast magnetic effects
• Ferrimagnets
• Magnetic multilayers
• Noncollinear magnets
• Thin films
• Sputtering
• Ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy