All-thermal switching of amorphous Gd-Fe alloys: analysis of structural properties and magnetization dynamics
arXiv:1508.05972 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.92.094411
Abstract
In recent years, there has been an intense interest in understanding the microscopic mechanism of thermally induced magnetization switching driven by a femtosecond laser pulse. Most of the effort has been dedicated to periodic crystalline structures while the amorphous counterparts have been less studied. By using a multiscale approach, i.e. first-principles density functional theory combined with atomistic spin dynamics, we report here on the very intricate structural and magnetic nature of amorphous Gd-Fe alloys for a wide range of Gd and Fe atomic concentrations at the nanoscale level. Both structural and dynamical properties of Gd-Fe alloys reported in this work are in good agreement with previous experiments. We calculated the dynamic behavior of homogeneous and inhomogeneous amorphous Gd-Fe alloys and their response under the influence of a femtosecond laser pulse. In the homogeneous sample, the Fe sublattice switches its magnetization before the Gd one. However, the temporal sequence of the switching of the two sublattices is reversed in the inhomogeneous sample. We propose a possible explanation based on a mechanism driven by a combination of the Dzyaloshiskii-Moriya interaction and exchange frustration, modeled by an antiferromagnetic second-neighbour exchange interaction between Gd atoms in the Gd-rich region. We also report on the influence of laser fluence and damping effects in the all-thermal switching.
arXiv commentAccepted in Physical Review B as a regular article. It contains 14 pages and 14 figures
References in corpus (8)
- A method for atomistic spin dynamics simulations: implementation and examples
- Random Close Packing of Disks and Spheres in Confined Geometries
- Two magnon bound state causes ultrafast thermally induced magnetisation switching
- Correlated band theory of spin and orbital contributions to Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions
- Femtosecond x-ray absorption spectroscopy of spin and orbital angular momentum in photoexcited Ni films during ultrafast demagnetization
- Treatment of 4f states of the rare-earths: the case study of TbN
- Magnetic interactions in strongly correlated systems: spin and orbital contributions
- An \emph{ab initio} method for locating characteristic potential energy minima of liquids
Cited by in corpus (22)
- Long spin coherence length and bulk-like spin-orbit torque in ferrimagnetic multilayers
- Blueprint for deterministic all-optical switching of magnetization
- The role of electron and phonon temperatures in the helicity-independent all-optical switching of GdFeCo
- Terahertz Emission from Compensated Magnetic Heterostructures
- Realistic finite temperature simulations of magnetic systems using quantum statistics
- All-optical spin switching: A new frontier in femtomagnetism -- A short review and a simple theory
- Roles of heating and helicity in ultrafast all-optical magnetization switching in TbFeCo
- H-T Phase Diagram of Rare-Earth -- Transition Metal Alloy in the Vicinity of the Compensation Point
- Helicity-independent all-optical switching of magnetization in ferrimagnetic alloys
- Ultrafast switching of composite order in AC
- Twisted magnetization states and inhomogeneous resonance modes in a Fe/Gd ferrimagnetic multilayer
- Magnetism and ultra-fast magnetization dynamics of Co and CoMn alloys at finite temperature
- First-principles and model simulation of all-optical spin reversal
- Element selective ultrafast magnetization dynamics of hybrid Stoner-Heisenberg magnets
- Effect of Cr spacer on structural and magnetic properties of Fe/Gd multilayers
- Helicity-dependent optical control of the magnetization state emerging from the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation
- Ab-initio study of ultrafast spin dynamics in Gdx(FeCo){1-x} alloys
- Quantum analog of Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert dynamics
- Versatile Approach to the Spin Dynamics in Correlated Electron Systems
- Optically induced spin-dependent diffusive transport in the presence of spin-orbit interaction for all-optical magnetization reversal
- All-optical spin switching under different spin configurations
- Field-derivative torque induced magnetization reversal in ferrimagnetic GdYbBiFeO