All-optical switching on the nanometer scale excited and probed with femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses

Abstract

Ultrafast control of magnetization on the nanometer length scale, in particular all-optical switching, is key to putting ultrafast magnetism on the path towards future technological application in data storage technology. However, magnetization manipulation with light on this length scale is challenging due to the wavelength limitations of optical radiation. Here, we excite transient magnetic gratings in a GdFe alloy with a periodicity of 87 nm by interference of two coherent femtosecond light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range at the free electron laser facility FERMI. The subsequent ultrafast evolution of the magnetization pattern is probed by diffraction of a third, time-delayed pulse tuned to the Gd N-edge at a wavelength of 8.3 nm. By examining the simultaneously recorded first and second diffraction orders and by performing reference real-space measurements with a wide-field magneto-optical microscope with femtosecond time resolution, we can conclusively demonstrate the ultrafast emergence of all-optical switching on the nanometer length scale.

arXiv comment6 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Ultrafast demagnetization in ferromagnetic materials: Origins and progress
• Transient grating spectroscopy on a DyCo${}_5$ thin film with femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses
• Magnetization precession after non-collinear dual optical excitation
• Pump--probe x-ray microscopy of photo-induced magnetization dynamics at MHz repetition rates
• Electronic mechanism of sub-100-fs demagnetization induced by a femtosecond light pulse
• Spin waves excited by hard x-ray transient gratings