Ultrafast ferromagnetic spin switching by a single pair of optical pulses

YAMADA, Kihiro T, RUTA, Sergiu, KIMEL, Alexey V, PRABHAKARA, Kiran Horabail, LI, Tian, ANDO, Fuyuki, SEMIN, Sergey, ONO, Teruo, KIRILYUK, Andrei, CHANTRELL, Roy W and RASING, Theo (2025). Ultrafast ferromagnetic spin switching by a single pair of optical pulses. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. [Article]

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35730:935797
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Abstract
All-optical magnetic recording potentially realizes orders of magnitude faster and more energy-efficient writing of magnetic bits but all-optical switching of ferromagnets is so far ultraslow. Here, we demonstrate a new mechanism to all-optically switch ferromagnetic spins on picosecond time scales by using a pair of one femtosecond (fs) linearly polarized (π) and one properly-delayed picosecond (ps) circularly polarized (σ) laser pulse for a Pt/Co/Pt multilayer. Our experiments show that the helicity dependent absorption of the ps-delayed ps σ pulse can deterministically steer the spin relaxation after destroying the ferromagnetic order by the fs π pulse. Atomistic spin-dynamics simulations show that the reversal occurs within approximately 3 ps through an unprecedented mechanism, where nanoscale spin textures created by the fs π pulse preferentially switch via magnetic circular dichroism, producing a spin- and helicity-dependent temperature difference of only a few Kelvin. Thus, a new route to deterministic ultrafast switching of nanoscale ferromagnetic media for ultra-high-density recording is opened up.
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