All-optical magnetization reversal by circularly polarized laser pulses: Experiment and multiscale modeling

and thus has a linear character. We demonstrate that this all-optically driven linear reversal can be modeled as a result of a two-fold impact of the laser pulse on the medium. First, due to absorption of the light and ultrafast laser-induced heating, the medium is brought to a highly nonequilibrium state. Simultaneously, due to the ultrafast inverse Faraday effect the circularly polarized laser pulse acts as an effective magnetic field of the amplitude up to ∼20 T. We show that the polarization-dependent reversal triggered by the circularly polarized light is feasible only in a narrow range (below 10%) of laser fluences. The duration of the laser pulse required for the reversal can be varied from ∼40 fs up to at least ∼1700 fs. We also investigate experimentally the role of the ferrimagnetic properties of GdFeCo in the all-optical reversal. In particular, the optimal conditions for the all-optical reversal are achieved just below the ferrimagnetic compensation temperature, where the magnetic information can be all-optically written by a laser pulse of minimal fluence and read out within just 30 ps. We argue that this is the fastest write-read event demonstrated for magnetic recording so far.