Precessional switching by ultrashort pulse laser: Beyond room temperature ferromagnetic resonance limit

Conventional pure magnetic recording schemes have a serious and unavoidable problem known as the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) limit. Here we demonstrate a fast precessional switching via interplay of ultrafast heating by ultrashort pulse laser and large temperature dependency of magnetic resonance. In ferrimagnetic GdFeCo, when the temperature approaches the angular momentum compensation point T-A, both frequency of FMR mode and the Gilbert damping parameter increase significantly. High-speed and strongly damped precessional switching was triggered with ultrafast heating of a Gd24.5Fe66.1Co9.4 across its magnetization compensation point T-M up to T-A, under a static applied magnetic field. To initiate and investigate the magnetization reversal, we have used an all-optical pump-probe technique employing an amplified Ti: sapphire laser system with 90 fs pulses. In particular, following the laser excitation with low pump fluence (0.9 mJ/cm(2)) the magnetic system relaxes back toward initial state while the rather high pump fluence (3.3 mJ/cm(2)) excitation induces a metastable opposite magnetic state. After the sudden heating which causes just 30% reduction of magnetization at first breakdown, consequently magnetization was started to rotate across M-z = 0 within 6 ps during first precession and finished the high damped precessional motion within few cycles into opposite direction. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3535415]