Understanding all-optical spin switching: Comparison between experiment and theory

Zhang, G. P.; Murakami, M.; Si, M. S.; Bai, Y. H.; George, Thomas F.

doi:10.1142/S021798491830003X

Title: Understanding all-optical spin switching: Comparison between experiment and theory

Journal Article · Wed Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Modern Physics Letters B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1142/S021798491830003X· OSTI ID:1544190

Zhang, G. P. ^[1]; Murakami, M. ^[1]; Si, M. S. ^[2]; Bai, Y. H. ^[1]; George, Thomas F. ^[3]

Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute, IN (United States)
Lanzhou Univ. (China)
Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis, MO (United States)

We report that information technology depends on how one can control and manipulate signals accurately and quickly. Transistors are at the core of modern technology and are based on electron charges. But as the device dimension shrinks, heating becomes a major problem. The spintronics explores the spin degree of electrons and thus bypasses the heat, at least in principle. For this reason, spin-based technology offers a possible solution. In this review, we survey some of the latest developments in all-optical switching (AOS), where ultrafast laser pulses are able to reverse spins from one direction to the other deterministically. But AOS only occurs in a special group of magnetic samples and within a narrow window of laser parameters. Some samples need multiple pulses to switch spins, while others need a single-shot pulse. To this end, there are several models available, but the underlying mechanism is still under debate. This review is different from other prior reviews in two aspects. First, we sacrifice the completeness of reviewing existing studies, while focusing on a limited set of experimental results that are highly reproducible in different labs and provide actual switched magnetic domain images. Second, we extract the common features from existing experiments that are critical to AOS, without favoring a particular switching mechanism. We emphasize that given the limited experimental data, it is really premature to identify a unified mechanism. Lastly, we compare these features with our own model prediction, without resorting to a phenomenological scheme. We hope that this review serves the broad readership well.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-06ER46304; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1544190

Journal Information:: Modern Physics Letters B, Vol. 32, Issue 28; ISSN 0217-9849

Publisher:: World Scientific PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 8 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (57)

Ultrafast non-thermal control of magnetization by instantaneous photomagnetic pulses Kimel, A. V.; Kirilyuk, A.; Usachev, P. A. Nature, Vol. 435, Issue 7042 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03564	journal	May 2005
Ferromagneticlike states and all-optical magnetization switching in ferrimagnets Gridnev, V. N. Physical Review B, Vol. 98, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.014427	journal	July 2018
Theoretical Discussion of the Inverse Faraday Effect, Raman Scattering, and Related Phenomena Pershan, P. S.; van der Ziel, J. P.; Malmstrom, L. D. Physical Review, Vol. 143, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.143.574	journal	March 1966
Towards massively parallelized all-optical magnetic recording Davies, C. S.; Janušonis, J.; Kimel, A. V. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5003713	journal	June 2018
Magnetism and electronic structure of hcp Gd and the Gd(0001) surface Kurz, Ph; Bihlmayer, G.; Blügel, S. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 14, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/14/25/305	journal	June 2002
Field-induced canting of magnetic moments in GdCo ₅ at finite temperature: first-principles calculations and high-field measurements Patrick, Christopher E.; Kumar, Santosh; Götze, Kathrin Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 30, Issue 32 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aad029	journal	July 2018
Spin currents and spin–orbit torques in ferromagnetic trilayers Baek, Seung-heon C.; Amin, Vivek P.; Oh, Young-Wan Nature Materials, Vol. 17, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0041-5	journal	March 2018
Microscopic and Spectroscopic Studies of Light-Induced Magnetization Switching of GdFeCo Facilitated by Photoemission Electron Microscopy Ohkochi, Takuo; Fujiwara, Hidenori; Kotsugi, Masato Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 7R https://doi.org/10.7567/JJAP.51.073001	journal	July 2012
All-optical magnetization reversal by circularly polarized laser pulses: Experiment and multiscale modeling Vahaplar, K.; Kalashnikova, A. M.; Kimel, A. V. Physical Review B, Vol. 85, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.104402	journal	March 2012
Laser induced magnetization switching in a TbFeCo ferrimagnetic thin film: discerning the impact of dipolar fields, laser heating and laser helicity by XPEEM Gierster, L.; Ünal, A. A.; Pape, L. Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 159 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultramic.2015.05.016	journal	December 2015
The Application of CPA to Calculations of the Mean Magnetic Moment in the Gd1-x-,Nix, Gd1-x -,Fex, Gd1-x -,Cox, and Y1-x -,Cox Intermetallic Compounds Szpunar, B.; Kozarzewski, K. Physica Status Solidi (b), Vol. 82, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssb.2220820121	journal	July 1977
All-optical helicity dependent magnetic switching in Tb-Fe thin films with a MHz laser oscillator Hassdenteufel, Alexander; Schubert, Christian; Hebler, Birgit Optics Express, Vol. 22, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.22.010017	journal	January 2014
Ultrafast optical manipulation of magnetic order Kirilyuk, Andrei; Kimel, Alexey V.; Rasing, Theo Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.82.2731	journal	September 2010
Is perpendicular magnetic anisotropy essential to all-optical ultrafast spin reversal in ferromagnets? Zhang, G. P.; Bai, Y. H.; George, Thomas F. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 29, Issue 42 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aa83c6	journal	September 2017
Nanoscale Confinement of All-Optical Magnetic Switching in TbFeCo - Competition with Nanoscale Heterogeneity Liu, Tian-Min; Wang, Tianhan; Reid, Alexander H. Nano Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02743	journal	September 2015
Light-induced magnetization reversal of high-anisotropy TbCo alloy films Alebrand, Sabine; Gottwald, Matthias; Hehn, Michel Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4759109	journal	October 2012
Structural and magnetic properties of granular Co-Pt multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Figueroa, A. I.; Bartolomé, J.; García, L. M. Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.174421	journal	November 2014
Low-remanence criterion for helicity-dependent all-optical magnetic switching in ferrimagnets Hassdenteufel, Alexander; Schmidt, Johannes; Schubert, Christian Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.104431	journal	March 2015
All-optical helicity dependent magnetic switching in an artificial zero moment magnet Schubert, C.; Hassdenteufel, A.; Matthes, P. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866803	journal	February 2014
Inertia-driven spin switching in antiferromagnets Kimel, A. V.; Ivanov, B. A.; Pisarev, R. V. Nature Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1369	journal	August 2009
All-optical control of ferromagnetic thin films and nanostructures Lambert, C. -H.; Mangin, S.; Varaprasad, B. S. D. C. S. Science, Vol. 345, Issue 6202 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1253493	journal	August 2014
In Quest of the “Next Switch”: Prospects for Greatly Reduced Power Dissipation in a Successor to the Silicon Field-Effect Transistor Theis, Thomas N.; Solomon, Paul M. Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 98, Issue 12, p. 2005-2014 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2010.2066531	journal	December 2010
All-optical magnetization recording by tailoring optical excitation parameters Steil, Daniel; Alebrand, Sabine; Hassdenteufel, Alexander Physical Review B, Vol. 84, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.224408	journal	December 2011
First-principles and model simulation of all-optical spin reversal Zhang, G. P.; Babyak, Z.; Xue, Y. Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.134407	journal	October 2017
Observation of Orbital Order in the Half-Filled $4 f$ Gd Compound Jang, H.; Kang, B. Y.; Cho, B. K. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.216404	journal	November 2016
Domain size criterion for the observation of all-optical helicity-dependent switching in magnetic thin films El Hadri, Mohammed Salah; Hehn, Michel; Pirro, Philipp Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.064419	journal	August 2016
Ultrafast magnetization reversal by picosecond electrical pulses Yang, Yang; Wilson, Richard B.; Gorchon, Jon Science Advances, Vol. 3, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1603117	journal	November 2017
Ferrimagnetic Tb–Fe Alloy Thin Films: Composition and Thickness Dependence of Magnetic Properties and All-Optical Switching Hebler, Birgit; Hassdenteufel, Alexander; Reinhardt, Patrick Frontiers in Materials, Vol. 3 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2016.00008	journal	February 2016
Ultrafast reduction of exchange splitting in ferromagnetic nickel Zhang, G. P.; Bai, Y. H.; George, Thomas F. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 28, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/28/23/236004	journal	May 2016
Thermally Assisted All-Optical Helicity Dependent Magnetic Switching in Amorphous Fe _{100- x} Tb _x Alloy Films Hassdenteufel, Alexander; Hebler, Birgit; Schubert, Christian Advanced Materials, Vol. 25, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201300176	journal	April 2013
The role of the compensation temperature in thermomagnetic switching Hansen, P.; Witter, K. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 24, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/20.92097	journal	January 1988
Laser-induced ultrafast spin reorientation in the antiferromagnet TmFeO3 Kimel, A. V.; Kirilyuk, A.; Tsvetkov, A. Nature, Vol. 429, Issue 6994 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02659	journal	June 2004
Ultrafast Spin Dynamics in Ferromagnetic Nickel Beaurepaire, E.; Merle, J. -C.; Daunois, A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 76, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.4250	journal	May 1996
Laser-Induced Magnetic Nanostructures with Tunable Topological Properties Finazzi, M.; Savoini, M.; Khorsand, A. R. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.177205	journal	April 2013
Giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energies in CoPt thin films: impact of reduced dimensionality and imperfections Brahimi, Samy; Bouzar, Hamid; Lounis, Samir Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 28, Issue 49 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/28/49/496002	journal	October 2016
All-Optical Switching of Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with Single Subpicosecond Laser Pulses Chen, Jun-Yang; He, Li; Wang, Jian-Ping Physical Review Applied, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.7.021001	journal	February 2017
Deterministic all-optical switching of synthetic ferrimagnets using single femtosecond laser pulses Lalieu, M. L. M.; Peeters, M. J. G.; Haenen, S. R. R. Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.220411	journal	December 2017
Role of Magnetic Circular Dichroism in All-Optical Magnetic Recording Khorsand, A. R.; Savoini, M.; Kirilyuk, A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.127205	journal	March 2012
Ultrafast all-optical magnetic switching in NaTb(WO4)2 Jin, Zuanming; Ma, Hong; Wang, Lihua Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3432072	journal	May 2010
Engineered materials for all-optical helicity-dependent magnetic switching Mangin, S.; Gottwald, M.; Lambert, C-H. Nature Materials, Vol. 13, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3864	journal	February 2014
Materials and devices for all-optical helicity-dependent switching El Hadri, Mohammed Salah; Hehn, Michel; Malinowski, Grégory Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa5adf	journal	March 2017
Interplay of heating and helicity in all-optical magnetization switching Alebrand, Sabine; Hassdenteufel, Alexander; Steil, Daniel Physical Review B, Vol. 85, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.092401	journal	March 2012
It's Time to Reinvent the Transistor! Theis, T. N.; Solomon, P. M. Science, Vol. 327, Issue 5973 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1187597	journal	March 2010
Single shot ultrafast all optical magnetization switching of ferromagnetic Co/Pt multilayers Gorchon, Jon; Lambert, Charles-Henri; Yang, Yang Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4994802	journal	July 2017
Single shot all optical switching of intrinsic micron size magnetic domains of a Pt/Co/Pt ferromagnetic stack Vomir, M.; Albrecht, M.; Bigot, J. -Y. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5010915	journal	December 2017
Athermal all-optical femtosecond magnetization reversal in GdFeCo Hohlfeld, J.; Stanciu, C. D.; Rebei, A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3119313	journal	April 2009
First-principles computation of surface segregation in L1 ₀ CoPt magnetic nanoparticles Liu, Zhenyu; Lei, Yinkai; Wang, Guofeng Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 28, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/28/26/266002	journal	May 2016
All-Optical Magnetic Recording with Circularly Polarized Light Stanciu, C. D.; Hansteen, F.; Kimel, A. V. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.047601	journal	July 2007
Interfacial effects on magnetic relaxation in Co/Pt multilayers Yuan, S. J.; Sun, L.; Sang, H. Physical Review B, Vol. 68, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.134443	journal	October 2003
Nanoscale sub-100 picosecond all-optical magnetization switching in GdFeCo microstructures Le Guyader, L.; Savoini, M.; El Moussaoui, S. Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6839	journal	January 2015
Ultrafast heating as a sufficient stimulus for magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet Ostler, T. A.; Barker, J.; Evans, R. F. L. Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1666	journal	January 2012
Roles of heating and helicity in ultrafast all-optical magnetization switching in TbFeCo Lu, Xianyang; Zou, Xiao; Hinzke, Denise Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5036720	journal	July 2018
Experimental demonstration of 55-fs spin canting in photoexcited iron nanoarrays Ren, Yuhang; Lai, Wei; Cevher, Zehra Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4977097	journal	February 2017
Ultrafast Path for Optical Magnetization Reversal via a Strongly Nonequilibrium State Vahaplar, K.; Kalashnikova, A. M.; Kimel, A. V. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.117201	journal	September 2009
Surface magnetism of L1 ₀ CoPt alloy: first principles predictions Liu, Zhenyu; Wang, Guofeng Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 29, Issue 35 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aa7b5b	journal	July 2017
Electrical characterization of all-optical helicity-dependent switching in ferromagnetic Hall crosses El Hadri, M. S.; Pirro, P.; Lambert, C. -H. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4943107	journal	February 2016
Magnetisation switching of FePt nanoparticle recording medium by femtosecond laser pulses John, R.; Berritta, M.; Hinzke, D. Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04167-w	journal	June 2017

Cited By (4)

Magneto-optical painting of heat current Wang, Jian; Takahashi, Yukiko K.; Uchida, Ken-ichi Nature Communications, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13799-7	journal	January 2020
Spin-orbit torque-mediated spin-wave excitation as an alternative paradigm for femtomagnetism Zhang, G. P.; Murakami, M.; Bai, Y. H. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5110522	journal	September 2019
Theoretical Investigation of All Optical Switching by Intersystem Crossing Zou, Yuhao; Wang, Haiwei; Huang, Haozhe Applied Sciences, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10010128	journal	December 2019
Spin-orbit torque-mediated spin-wave excitation as an alternative paradigm for femtomagnetism Zhang, G. P.; Murakami, M.; Bai, Y. H. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1912.01736	text	January 2019

Similar Records

Laser-Induced Ultrafast Demagnetization and Spin Switching (Final Report)

Technical Report · Tue Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · OSTI ID:1544190

Zhang, Guoping

First-principles insight into all-optical spin switching in the half-metallic Heusler ferrimagnet Mn2RuGa

Journal Article · Fri Feb 25 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Physical Review. B · OSTI ID:1544190

Zhang, Guo Ping; Bai, Y. H.; Si, M. S.; +1 more

An attempt to simulate laser-induced all-optical spin switching in a crystalline ferrimagnet

Journal Article · Wed Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2020 · AIP Advances · OSTI ID:1544190

Zhang, G. P.; Meadows, Robert; Tamayo, Antonio; +2 more

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
All-optical switching
spin dynamics
dynamic simulation

Title: Understanding all-optical spin switching: Comparison between experiment and theory

Citation Formats

References (57)

Cited By (4)

Similar Records

Related Subjects