Publication Date:
2016-11-08
Description:
Author(s): J. Gorchon, R. B. Wilson, Y. Yang, A. Pattabi, J. Y. Chen, L. He, J. P. Wang, M. Li, and J. Bokor GdFeCo ferrimagnetic films have the unique property of responding with a full reversal of the magnetization following irradiation of a single femtosecond laser pulse. The switching of the magnetization happens within a picosecond. Referred to as “all-optical switching,” the mechanism has been attributed to the rapid heating of electrons to extremely high peak temperatures and to the existence of two different magnetic sublattices. In this work, the authors demonstrate that all-optical switching is possible for pulses up to 15 ps in duration, where the electron peak temperatures are much more modest, barely reaching the Curie temperature. This result was obtained by using static and time-resolved experiments to access the critical switching fluences and the magnetization dynamics for various pulse durations and initial temperatures. [Phys. Rev. B 94, 184406] Published Fri Nov 04, 2016
Keywords:
Magnetism
Print ISSN:
1098-0121
Electronic ISSN:
1095-3795
Topics:
Physics
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