15–16 Sept 2011
Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland
Europe/Zurich timezone

Ultrafast magnetization dynamics in GdFeCo

16 Sept 2011, 16:30
20m
WBGB/019 (Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland)

WBGB/019

Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland

Talk Multiple Order Parameter Systems Multiple Order Parameter Systems

Speaker

Dr Souliman El Moussaoui (Paul Scherrer Institut)

Description

Nanostructures of GdFeCo have been fabricated using lithography and lift-off techniques. Their magnetic properties were revealed using the Photoemission Electron Microscope (PEEM) available at the SIM beamline. Employing fs-optical excitation, we have been able to manipulate the magnetization of the nanostructures on very short time scales. By performing these experiments we have found experimental evidence for a novel mechanism of magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet, which is triggered by a heat pulse only. In general, magnetization reversal is driven by a quantity that can be represented by a vector such as an external magnetic field or an applied current while in our experiment the reversal happens only by heating the system on the time scale of the exchange interaction of the two sublattices. We have further investigated the structures by performing Time Resolved X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroïsm (TR-XMCD) and observed that the magnetization reversal occurs on a time scale faster than our resolution limit of 50 ps. We will report and discuss our latest results, obtained in both static and time resolved modes and the mechanism of the magnetization reversal will be described.

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Ultrafast magnetization dynamics

Primary author

Dr Souliman El Moussaoui (Paul Scherrer Institut)

Co-authors

Prof. Akiyoshi Itoh (Nihon University) Dr Alexey Kimel (Radboud University Nijmegen) Dr Andrei Kirilyuk (Radboud University Nijmegen) Dr Arata Tsukamoto (Nihon University) Dr Elena Mengotti (Paul Scherrer Institut) Frithjof Nolting (Paul Scherrer Institut) Dr Laura Heyderman (Paul Scherrer Institut) Dr Loïc Le Guyader (Paul Scherrer Institut) Theo Rasing (Radboud University Nijmegen)

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