Spatially inhomogeneous inverse Faraday effect provides tunable nonthermal excitation of exchange dominated spin waves.

We demonstrate optical nonthermal excitation of exchange dominated spin waves of different orders in a magnetophotonic crystal. The magnetophotonic structure consists of a thin magnetic film and a Bragg stack of nonmagnetic layers to provide a proper nonuniform interference pattern of the inverse Faraday effect induced by light in the magnetic layer. We found a phenomenon of the pronounced phase slippage of the inverse Faraday effect distribution when the pump wavelength is within the photonic band gap of the structure.