Laser-induced helicity and texture-dependent switching of nanoscale stochastic domains in a ferromagnetic film

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Main Authors: Khusyainov, Dinar, Liefferink, Rein, Na, MengXing, Fabian, Kammerbauer, Frömter, Robert, Kläui, Mathias, Kozodaev, Dmitry, Vovk, Nikolay, Mikhaylovskiy, Rostislav, Afanasiev, Dmytro, Kimel, Alexey, Mentink, Johan H., Rasing, Theo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Khusyainov, Dinar
Liefferink, Rein
Na, MengXing
Fabian, Kammerbauer
Frömter, Robert
Kläui, Mathias
Kozodaev, Dmitry
Vovk, Nikolay
Mikhaylovskiy, Rostislav
Afanasiev, Dmytro
Kimel, Alexey
Mentink, Johan H.
Rasing, Theo
author_facet Khusyainov, Dinar
Liefferink, Rein
Na, MengXing
Fabian, Kammerbauer
Frömter, Robert
Kläui, Mathias
Kozodaev, Dmitry
Vovk, Nikolay
Mikhaylovskiy, Rostislav
Afanasiev, Dmytro
Kimel, Alexey
Mentink, Johan H.
Rasing, Theo
contents Controlling magnetic textures at ever smaller length and time scales is of key fundamental and technological interest. Achieving nanoscale control often relies on finding an external stimulus that is able to act on that small length scales, which is highly challenging. A promising alternative is to achieve nanoscale control using the inhomogeneity of the magnetic texture itself. Using a multilayered ferromagnetic Pt/Co/Pt thin-film structure as a model system, we employ a magnetic force microscope to investigate the change in magnetic nanotextures induced by circularly polarized picosecond laser pulses. Starting from a saturated magnetic state, we find stochastic nucleation of complex nanotextured domain networks. In particular, the growth of these domains depends not only on their macroscopic magnetization but also on the complexity of the domain texture. This helicity and texture-dependent effect contrasts with the typical homogeneous growth of magnetic domains initiated by an effective magnetic field of a circularly polarized laser pulse. We corroborate our findings with a stochastic model for the nucleation of magnetic domains, in which the nucleation and annihilation probability not only depends on the helicity of light but also on the relative magnetization orientation of neighboring domains. Our results establish a new approach to investigate ultrafast nanoscale magnetism and photo-excitation across first-order phase transitions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_11700
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Laser-induced helicity and texture-dependent switching of nanoscale stochastic domains in a ferromagnetic film
Khusyainov, Dinar
Liefferink, Rein
Na, MengXing
Fabian, Kammerbauer
Frömter, Robert
Kläui, Mathias
Kozodaev, Dmitry
Vovk, Nikolay
Mikhaylovskiy, Rostislav
Afanasiev, Dmytro
Kimel, Alexey
Mentink, Johan H.
Rasing, Theo
Materials Science
Controlling magnetic textures at ever smaller length and time scales is of key fundamental and technological interest. Achieving nanoscale control often relies on finding an external stimulus that is able to act on that small length scales, which is highly challenging. A promising alternative is to achieve nanoscale control using the inhomogeneity of the magnetic texture itself. Using a multilayered ferromagnetic Pt/Co/Pt thin-film structure as a model system, we employ a magnetic force microscope to investigate the change in magnetic nanotextures induced by circularly polarized picosecond laser pulses. Starting from a saturated magnetic state, we find stochastic nucleation of complex nanotextured domain networks. In particular, the growth of these domains depends not only on their macroscopic magnetization but also on the complexity of the domain texture. This helicity and texture-dependent effect contrasts with the typical homogeneous growth of magnetic domains initiated by an effective magnetic field of a circularly polarized laser pulse. We corroborate our findings with a stochastic model for the nucleation of magnetic domains, in which the nucleation and annihilation probability not only depends on the helicity of light but also on the relative magnetization orientation of neighboring domains. Our results establish a new approach to investigate ultrafast nanoscale magnetism and photo-excitation across first-order phase transitions.
title Laser-induced helicity and texture-dependent switching of nanoscale stochastic domains in a ferromagnetic film
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11700