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arXiv · 1903.01941

Efficient all-optical helicity dependent switching of spins in a Pt/Co/Pt film by a dual-pulse excitation

Kihiro T. Yamada·Alexey V. Kimel·Kiran Horabail Prabhakara·Sergiu Ruta·Tian Li·Fuyuki Ando·Sergey Semin·Teruo Ono·Andrei Kirilyuk·Theo Rasing
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Abstract

All-optical helicity dependent switching (AO-HDS), deterministic control of magnetization by circularly polarized laser pulses, allows to efficiently manipulate spins without the need of a magnetic field. However, AO-HDS in ferromagnetic metals so far requires many laser pulses for fully switching their magnetic states. Using a combination of a short, 90-fs linearly polarized pulse and a subsequent longer, 3-ps circularly polarized pulse, we demonstrate that the number of pulses for full magnetization reversal can be reduced to 4 pulse pairs in a single stack of Pt/Co/Pt. The obtained results suggest that the dual-pulse approach is a potential route towards realizing efficient AO-HDS in ferromagnetic metals.

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Kihiro T. Yamada, Alexey V. Kimel, Kiran Horabail Prabhakara, Sergiu Ruta, Tian Li, Fuyuki Ando, Sergey Semin, Teruo Ono, Andrei Kirilyuk, Theo Rasing. 2019-03-05. Efficient all-optical helicity dependent switching of spins in a Pt/Co/Pt film by a dual-pulse excitation. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnano.2022.765848

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