Energy Efficient Control of Ultrafast Spin Current to Induce Single Femtosecond Pulse Switching of a Ferromagnet

New methods to induce magnetization switching in a thin ferromagnetic material using femtosecond laser pulses without the assistance of an applied external magnetic field have recently attracted a lot of interest. It has been shown that by optically triggering the reversal of the magnetization in a GdFeCo layer, the magnetization of a nearby ferromagnetic thin film can also be reversed via spin currents originating in the GdFeCo layer. Here, using a similar structure, it is shown that the magnetization reversal of the GdFeCo is not required in order to reverse the magnetization of the ferromagnetic thin film. This switching is attributed to the ultrafast spin current and can be generated by the GdFeCo demagnetization. A larger energy efficiency of the ferromagnetic layer single pulse switching is obtained for a GdFeCo with a larger Gd concentration. Those ultrafast and energy efficient switchings observed in such spintronic devices open a new path toward ultrafast and energy efficient magnetic memories.