Thermal impact on ultrafast helicity independent all-optical switching of GdxCo100-x

Abstract

Ultrafast all-optical switching by single femtosecond laser pulse has recently been considered as one of the most potential technologies for the application on high-speed and energy efficient memory device. Here, to ensure such a sophisticated technology to be applicable to more complex environments, we report the dependence of all-optical switching of the ferrimagnet, GdCo, on the ambient temperature. Through heating the GdCo film up to 380 K, we demonstrate the distinct magnetic behaviours and the critical laser fluences of all-optical switching under different composition of Gd. It is found that the thermal stability for AOS will be significantly improved when there are more rare-earth elements, Gd in GdCo. This work provides a deep insight into the thermal effect on helicity independent all-optical switching and will optimize the application of ultrafast technology on the spintronic devices and magnetic memories.