Abstract
All-optical switching (AOS) of magnetic materials describes the reversal of the magnetization using short (femtosecond) laser pulses, and received extensive attention in the past decade due to its high potential for fast and energy-efficient data writing in future spintronic memory applications. Unfortunately, the AOS mechanism in the ferromagnetic multilayers commonly used in spintronics needs multiple pulses for the magnetization reversal, losing its speed and energy efficiency. Here, we experimentally demonstrate on-the-fly single-pulse AOS in combination with spin Hall effect (SHE) driven motion of magnetic domains in Pt/Co/Gd synthetic-ferrimagnetic racetracks. Moreover, using field-driven-SHE-assisted domain wall (DW) motion measurements, both the SHE efficiency in the racetrack is determined and the chirality of the optically written DW’s is verified. Our experiments demonstrate that Pt/Co/Gd racetracks facilitate both single-pulse AOS as well as efficient SHE-induced domain wall motion, which might ultimately pave the way towards integrated photonic memory devices.
Highlights
All-optical switching (AOS) of magnetic materials describes the reversal of the magnetization using short laser pulses, and received extensive attention in the past decade due to its high potential for fast and energy-efficient data writing in future spintronic memory applications
Soon it was discovered that the AOS in rare earth-transition metal (RE-TM) alloys is a purely thermal single-pulse process[3,4], and that an earlier observed helicity dependence was the result of magnetic circular dichroism[1,5]
We experimentally demonstrate that the Pt/Co/Gd stack is an ideal candidate to facilitate the integration of AOS with spintronics, and with the racetrack memory
Summary
All-optical switching (AOS) of magnetic materials describes the reversal of the magnetization using short (femtosecond) laser pulses, and received extensive attention in the past decade due to its high potential for fast and energy-efficient data writing in future spintronic memory applications. The SHE efficiency in the Pt/Co/Gd racetrack is determined, predicting high DW velocities, and a proof-ofconcept measurement is presented demonstrating on-the-fly data writing in the racetrack, i.e. showing single-pulse AOS while simultaneously sending an electrical current through the racetrack that transports the written magnetic domains by means of the SHE.
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