Ultrafast heating as a sufficient stimulus for magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet

作者：Ostler, T. A.^*; Barker, J.; Evans, R. F. L.; Chantrell, R. W.; Atxitia, U.; Chubykalo-Fesenko, O.; El Moussaoui, S.; Le Guyader, L.; Mengotti, E.; Heyderman, L. J.; Nolting, F.; Tsukamoto, A.; Itoh, A.; Afanasiev, D.; Ivanov, B. A.; Kalashnikova, A. M.; Vahaplar, K.; Mentink, J.; Kirilyuk, A.; Rasing, Th; Kimel, A. V.

来源：Nature Communications, 2012, 3(1): 666.

DOI：10.1038/ncomms1666

The question of how, and how fast, magnetization can be reversed is a topic of great practical interest for the manipulation and storage of magnetic information. It is generally accepted that magnetization reversal should be driven by a stimulus represented by time-non-invariant vectors such as a magnetic field, spin-polarized electric current, or cross-product of two oscillating electric fields. However, until now it has been generally assumed that heating alone, not represented as a vector at all, cannot result in a deterministic reversal of magnetization, although it may assist this process. Here we show numerically and demonstrate experimentally a novel mechanism of deterministic magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet driven by an ultrafast heating of the medium resulting from the absorption of a sub-picosecond laser pulse without the presence of a magnetic field.

• 出版日期2012-2