Frontiers in Nanotechnology (Feb 2022)
Efficient All-Optical Helicity Dependent Switching of Spins in a Pt/Co/Pt Film by a Dual-Pulse Excitation
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 four 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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