Magnetic switching in ultrashort field pulses (abstract)

Abstract

The Ginzburg–Landau–Lifshitz (GLL) equation, which describes the time dependence of spin precesssion in an external magnetic field1 relates the minimal field required to reverse the magnetization at fixed pulse length to the anisotropy field of the sample.23 We have systematically varied this parameter between 1.3 and about 5.0 T in a series of perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pt multilayer films and studied the magnetization reversal in picosecond in plane field pulses. Such pulses of several Tesla field strength and ultrashort duration were obtained in the final focus test beam section of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The resulting magnetization pattern, which is reminiscent of the field during exposure, is subsequently analyzed with Kerr microscopy2 (see Fig. 1). As a prominent feature, we observe a beam field related switching radius from up to down magnetization which we compare to the theoretically expected field within the GLL formalism.