2023/02/09 by Zongxia Guo, Junlin Wang, Guo, Zongxia +29 · 1 citation
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic Properties and Applications #Magnetic properties of thin films #Magneto-Optical Properties and Applications #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2302.04510
openalex publication_date 2023/02/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Ultrafast manipulation of magnetic order has challenged our understanding the fundamental and dynamic properties of magnetic materials. So far single shot magnetic switching has been limited to ferrimagnetic alloys and multilayers. In ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) bilayers, exchange bias (He) arises from the interfacial exchange coupling between the two layers and reflects the microscopic orientation of the antiferromagnet. Here we demonstrate the possibility of single shot switching of the antiferromagnet (change of the sign and amplitude of He) with a single femtosecond laser pulse in IrMn/CoGd bilayers. We demonstrate the switching for a wide range of fluences for different layer thicknesses and compositions. Atomistic simulations predict ultrafast switching and recovery of the AFM magnetization on a timescale of 2 ps. These results provide the fastest and the most energy-efficient method to set the exchange bias and pave the way to potential applications for ultrafast spintronic devices.