[摘要]:We report a photoinduced femtosecond change in the magnetization direction in the ferromagnetic semiconductor GaMnAs, which allows for the detection of a four-state magnetic memory on the femtosecond time scale. The temporal profile of the magnetization exhibits a discontinuity that reveals two distinct temporal regimes, marked by the transition from a carrier-mediated nonthermal regime within the first 200 fs to a thermal, lattice-heating picosecond regime.