Ultrafast Magnetic Switching of GdFeCo with Electronic Heat Currents

Abstract

We report the magnetic response of Au/GdFeCo bilayers to optical irradiation of the Au surface. For bilayers with Au thickness greater than 50 nm, the great majority of energy is absorbed by the Au electrons, creating an initial temperature differential of thousands of Kelvin between the Au and GdFeCo layers. The resulting electronic heat currents between the Au and GdFeCo layers last for several picoseconds with energy flux in excess of 2 TW m-2, and provide sufficient heating to the GdFeCo electrons to induce deterministic reversal of the magnetic moment.

17 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Super-Diffusive Spin-Transport as a Mechanism of Ultrafast Demagnetization
• The role of electron and phonon temperatures in the helicity-independent all-optical switching of GdFeCo
• Electron-phonon interaction during optically induced ultrafast magnetization dynamics of Au/GdFeCo bilayers

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Ultrafast Magnetization Reversal by Picosecond Electrical Pulses
• Spin-current-mediated rapid magnon localisation and coalescence after ultrafast optical pumping of ferrimagnetic alloys
• Single shot ultrafast all optical magnetization switching of ferromagnetic Co/Pt multilayers
• Picosecond acoustic excitation driven ultrafast magnetization dynamics in dielectric Bi-substituted yttrium iron garnet
• Single shot all optical switching of intrinsic micron size magnetic domains of a Pt/Co/Pt ferromagnetic stack
• Parametric dependence of hot electron relaxation timescales on electron-electron and electron-phonon interaction strengths
• Roles of heating and helicity in ultrafast all-optical magnetization switching in TbFeCo
• Unveiling domain wall dynamics of ferrimagnets in thermal magnon currents: competition of angular momentum transfer and entropic torque
• Emergence of Transient Domain Wall Skyrmions after Ultrafast Demagnetisation
• Deterministic and stochastic aspects of current-induced magnetization reversal in perpendicular nanomagnets
• Non-local correlation effects due to virtual spin-flip processes in itinerant electron ferromagnets
• Spin accumulation and dissipation excited by an ultrafast laser pulse
• Ultrafast relaxation dynamics of excited carriers in metals: Simplifying the intertwined dependencies upon scattering strengths, phonon temperature, photon energy, and excitation level
• Single-Shot Magnetization Reversal in Ferromagnetic Spin Valves Enabled via Heat Control
• Single-shot multi-level all-optical magnetization switching mediated by spin-polarized hot electron transport
• Phase transitions in rare-earth ferrimagnets with surface anisotropy near the magnetization compensation point
• Ultra-fast magnetization manipulation using single femtosecond light and hot-electrons pulse
• Differentiating Contributions of Electrons and Phonons to the Thermoreflectance Spectra of Gold