Many questions are still open regarding the physical mechanisms behind the magnetic switching in GdFeCo alloys by single optical pulses. Phenomenological models suggest a femtosecond scale exchange relaxation between sublattice magnetization as the driving mechanism for switching. The recent observation of thermally induced switching in GdFeCo by using both several picosecond optical laser pulse as well as electric current pulses has questioned this previous understanding. This has raised the question of whether or not the same switching mechanics are acting at the femo- and picosecond scales. In this work, we aim at filling this gap in the understanding of the switching mechanisms behind thermal single-pulse switching. To that end, we have studied experimentally thermal single-pulse switching in GdFeCo alloys, for a wide range of system parameters, such as composition, laser power and pulse duration. We provide a quantitative description of the switching dynamics using atomistic spin dynamics methods with excellent agreement between the model and our experiments across a wide range of parameters and timescales, ranging from femtoseconds to picoseconds. Furthermore, we find distinct element-specific damping parameters as a key ingredient for switching with long picosecond pulses and argue, that switching with pulse durations as long as 15 picoseconds is possible due to a low damping constant of Gd. Our findings can be easily extended to speed up dynamics in other contexts where ferrimagnetic GdFeCo alloys have been already demonstrated to show fast and energy-efficient processes, e.g. domain-wall motion in a track and spin-orbit torque switching in spintronics devices.
Magnetization reversal in GdFeCo by circularly polarized light is shown to occur at the femtosecond time scale. In contrast to the well known laser-assisted magnetization reversal based on the laser heating, we here demonstrate that this femtosecond all-optical magnetization reversal is more efficient at lower temperatures. The lower the temperatures, the smaller the laser fluence required for the switching. This switching is in agreement with a more recent theoretical prediction $[ \text{Phys. Lett. A \textbf{372}, 1915 (2008)} ] $ and demonstrates the feasibility of the femtosecond athermal …
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.
Single-pulse switching has been experimentally demonstrated in ferrimagnetic GdFeCo and Mn$_2$Ru$_x$Ga alloys. Complete understanding of single-pulse switching is missing due to the lack of an established theory accurately describing the transition to the non-equilibrium reversal path induced by femtosecond laser photo-excitation. In this work we present general macroscopic theory for the magnetization dynamics of ferrimagnetic materials upon femtosecond laser excitation. Our theory reproduces quantitatively all stages of the switching process observed in experiments. We directly compare our t…
Spintronics provides an efficient platform for realizing non-volatile memory and logic devices. In these systems, data is stored in the magnetization of magnetic materials, and magnetization is switched in the writing process. In conventional spintronic devices, ferromagnetic materials are used which have a magnetization dynamics timescale of around the nanoseconds, setting a limit for the switching speed. Increasing the magnetization switching speed has been one of the challenges in spintronic research. In this work we take advantage of the ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferrimagnetic ma…
Magnetization manipulation in the absence of an external magnetic field is a topic of great interest, since many novel physical phenomena need to be understood and promising new applications can be imagined. Cutting-edge experiments have shown the capability to switch the magnetization of magnetic thin films using ultrashort polarized laser pulses. In 2007, it was first observed that the magnetization switching for GdFeCo alloy thin films was helicity-dependent and later helicity-independent switching was also demonstrated on the same material. Recently, all-optical switching has also been dis…
In this work, we present evidence for the existence of a magnonic current on the sub-picosecond time-scale in a ferrimagnetic bilayer and its effect on ultrafast spin dynamics. The ferrimagnet, GdFeCo, is a material known to undergo ultrafast switching within 1-2ps after excitation with femtosecond laser pulses. Here, we show that the strong thermal gradients induced by applying femtosecond laser pulses and the presence of chemical inhomogeneities lead to local imbalances in the effective temperatures of the spins that produces a rapid transfer of spin angular momentum, which we interpret as a…
Current induced magnetization manipulation is a key issue for spintronic application. Therefore, deterministic switching of the magnetization at the picoseconds timescale with a single electronic pulse represents a major step towards the future developments of ultrafast spintronic. Here, we have studied the ultrafast magnetization dynamics in engineered Gdx[FeCo]1-x based structure to compare the effect of femtosecond laser and hot-electrons pulses. We demonstrate that a single femtosecond hot-electrons pulse allows a deterministic magnetization reversal in either Gd-rich and FeCo-rich alloys …
Femtosecond laser excitations in half-metal (HM) compounds are theoretically predicted to induce an exotic picosecond spin dynamics. In particular, conversely to what is observed in conventional metals and semiconductors, the thermalization process in HMs leads to a long living partially thermalized configuration characterized by three Fermi--Dirac distributions for the minority, majority conduction and majority valence electrons respectively. Remarkably, these distributions have the same temperature but different chemical potentials. This unusual thermodynamics state causes a persistent non-e…
Three-temperature atomistic spin-lattice dynamics in LAMMPS: a moment-consistent, fluctuation-dissipation-correct extension and its validation on ultrafast demagnetization and all-optical switching of GdFeCo
DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)（大邱庆北科学技术院）；Kunsan National University（群山国立大学）；Chungbuk National University（忠北国立大学）
X-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy using an X-ray free electron laser is demonstrated with spectra over the Fe L$_{3,2}$-edges. This new ultrafast time-resolved capability is then applied to a fluence-dependent study of all-optical magnetic switching dynamics of Fe and Gd magnetic sublattices in a GdFeCo thin film above its magnetization compensation temperature. At the magnetic switching fuence, we corroborate the existence of a transient ferromagnetic-like state. The timescales of the dynamics, however, are longer than previously observed below the magnetization compensation temp…
Control of magnetism without using magnetic fields enables large-scale integration of spintronic devices for memory, computation and communication in the beyond-CMOS era. Mechanisms including spin torque transfer, spin Hall effect, and electric field or strain assisted switching have been implemented to switch magnetization in various spintronic devices. Their operation speed, however, is fundamentally limited by the spin precession time to be longer than 10-100 picoseconds. Overcoming such a speed constraint is critical for the prospective development of spintronics. Here we report the demons…
The carrier emission efficiency of light emitting diodes is of fundamental importance for many technological applications, including the performance of GaN and other semiconductor photocathodes. We have measured the evolution of the emitted carriers and the associated transient electric field after femtosecond laser excitation of n-type GaN single crystals. These processes were studied using subpicosecond, ultrashort, electron pulses and explained by means of a three-layer analytical model. We find that for pump laser intensities on the order of 10^11 W/cm^2, the electrons that escaped from th…
Coherent phonons (CP) generated by laser pulses on the femtosecond scale have been proposed as a means to achieve ultrafast, non-thermal switching in phase-change materials such as Ge$_{2}$Sb$_{2}$Te$_{5}$(GST). Here we use ultrafast optical pump pulses to induce coherent acoustic phonons and stroboscopically measure the corresponding lattice distortions in GST using 100 ps x-ray pulses from the ESRF storage ring. A linear-chain model provides a good description of the observed changes in the diffraction signal, however, the magnitudes of the measured shifts are too large to be explained by th…
We investigate selective patterning of ultra-thin 20 nm Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) thin films on glass substrates, using 343, 515, and 1030 nm femtosecond (fs), and 1030 nm picoseconds (ps) laser pulses. An ablative removal mechanism is observed for all wavelengths at both femtosecond and picoseconds time-scales. The absorbed threshold fluence values were determined to be 12.5 mJ/cm2 at 343 nm, 9.68 mJ/cm2 at 515 nm, and 7.50 mJ/cm2 at 1030 nm for femtosecond and 9.14 mJ/cm2 at 1030 nm for picosecond laser exposure. Surface analysis of ablated craters using atomic force microscopy confirms that th…
A theoretical investigation of the ultrafast processes and dynamics of the excited carriers upon irradiation of GaAs with femtosecond (fs) pulsed lasers is performed in conditions that induce material damage and eventually surface modification of the heated solid. A parametric study is followed to correlate the produced transient carrier density with the damage threshold for various pulse duration values τp (it increases as ~ at relatively small values of τp while it drops for pulse durations of the order of some picoseconds) based on the investigation of the fundamental multiscale physical pr…
Single Pulse All Optical Helicity Independent Switching (AO-HIS) represents the ability to reverse the magnetic moment of a nanostructure using a femtosecond single laser pulse. It is an ultrafast method to manipulate magnetization without the use of any applied field. Since the first switching experiments carried on GdFeCo ferrimagnetic systems, single pulse AO-HIS has been restricted for a while to Gd-based alloys or Gd/FM bilayers where FM is a ferromagnetic layer. Only recently has AO-HIS been extended to a few other materials: MnRuGa ferrimagnetic Heusler alloys and Tb/Co multilayers with…
We have studied ultrafast photoinduced demagnetization in GaMnAs via two-color time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopy. Below-bandgap midinfrared pump pulses strongly excite the valence band, while near-infrared probe pulses reveal sub-picosecond demagnetization that is followed by an ultrafast ($\sim$1 ps) partial recovery of the Kerr signal. Through comparison with InMnAs, we attribute the signal recovery to an ultrafast energy relaxation of holes. We propose that the dynamical polarization of holes through $p$-$d$ scattering is the source of the observed probe signal. These results …
Using femtosecond optical pulses, we have investigated the ultrafast magnetization dynamics induced in a dielectric film of bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi-YIG) buried below a thick Cu/Pt metallic bilayer. We show that exciting the sample from Pt surface launches an acoustic strain pulse propagating into the garnet film. We discovered that this strain pulse induces a coherent magnetization precession in the Bi-YIG at the frequency of the ferromagnetic resonance. The observed phenomena can be explain by strain-induced changes of magnetocristalline anisotropy via the inverse magnetos…
Probing of magnetic dimensional crossover in CrSiTe$_{3}$ through picosecond strain pulses
Indian Institute of Science Education and research, Kolkata（印度科学教育研究所加尔各答分校）；Tata Institute of Fundamental research, Mumbai（塔塔基础研究所孟买）；S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata（S.N. 玻色基础科学国家中心加尔各答）
We present a real-time investigation of ultrafast carrier dynamics in single-wall carbon nanotube bundles using femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The experiments allow to study the processes governing the subpicosecond and the picosecond dynamics of non-equilibrium charge-carriers. On the subpicoseond timescale the dynamics are dominated by ultrafast electron-electron scattering processes which lead to internal thermalization of the laser excited electron gas. We find that quasiparticle lifetimes decrease strongly as a function of their energy up to 2.38 eV above the Fermi-…
Femtosecond laser pulses can induce ultrafast demagnetization as well as generate bursts of hot electron spin currents. In trilayer spin valves consisting of two metallic ferromagnetic layers separated by a nonmagnetic one, hot electron spin currents excited by an ultrashort laser pulse propagate from the first ferromagnetic layer through the spacer reaching the second magnetic layer. When the magnetizations of the two magnetic layers are noncollinear, this spin current exerts a torque on magnetic moments in the second ferromagnet. Since this torque is acting only within the sub-ps timescale, …
The use of femtosecond laser pulses to impulsively excite thermal and mechanical transients in matter has led, in the last years, to the development of picosecond acoustics. Recently, the pump-probe approach has been applied to nano-engineered materials to optically generate and detect acoustic waves in the GHz-THz frequency range. In this paper, we review the latest advances on ultrafast generation and detection of thermal gradients and pseudo-surface acoustic waves in two-dimensional lattices of metallic nanostructures. Comparing the experimental findings to the numeric analysis of the full …
The absence of stray fields, their insensitivity to external magnetic fields, and ultrafast dynamics make antiferromagnets promising candidates for active elements in spintronic devices. Here, we demonstrate manipulation of the Néel vector in the metallic collinear antiferromagnet Mn$_2$Au by combining strain and femtosecond laser excitation. Applying tensile strain along either of the two in-plane easy axes and locally exciting the sample by a train of femtosecond pulses, we align the Néel vector along the direction controlled by the applied strain. The dependence on the laser fluence and str…
