In femtosecond demagnetization experiments, one gains access to the elementary relaxation mechanisms of a magnetically ordered spin system on a time scale of 100 fs. Following these experiments, we report a combined micromagnetic and experimental study that connects the different regimes known from all-optical pump-probe experiments by employing a simple micromagnetic model. We identify spin-wave packets on the nanometer scale that contribute to the remagnetization process on the intermediate time scale between single-spin relaxation and collective precession.

12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett, changes made with regard to review process