All-optical switching (AOS) in ferrimagnetic Fe(100-x)Tb(x) alloys is presented. AOS is witnessed below, above, and in samples without a magnetic compensation point. It is found that AOS is associated with laser heating up to the Curie temperature and intimately linked to a low remanent sample magnetization. Above a threshold magnetization of 220 emu/cc helicity dependent AOS is replaced by pure thermal demagnetization.

Ferrimagnetic rare earth -transition metal Tb-Fe alloy thin films exhibit a variety of different magnetic properties, which depend strongly on composition and temperature. In this study, first the influence of the film thickness (5-85 nm) on the sample magnetic properties was investigated in a wide composition range between 15 and 38 at.% of Tb. From our results, we find that the compensation point, remanent magnetization, and magnetic anisotropy of the Tb-Fe films depend not only on the composition but also on the thickness of the magnetic film up to a critical thickness of about 20-30 nm. Beyond this critical thickness, only slight changes in magnetic properties are observed. This behavior can be attributed to a growth-induced modification of the microstructure of the amorphous films, which affects the short range order. As a result, a more collinear alignment of the distributed magnetic moments of Tb along the out-of-plane direction with film thickness is obtained. This increasing contribution of the Tb sublattice magnetization to the total sample magnetization is equivalent to a sample becoming richer in Tb and can be referred to as an "effective" composition. Furthermore, the possibility of all-optical switching, where the magnetization orientation of Tb-Fe can be reversed solely by circularly polarized laser pulses, was analyzed for a broad range of compositions and film thicknesses and correlated to the underlying magnetic properties.

We introduce laboratory-scale magneto-optical imaging with sub–50-nm resolution using high-harmonic radiation.

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The phenomenon of different time scales of ultrafast demagnetization has attracted much attention. This so-called diversity of ultrafast demagnetization has been explained by the microscopic three temperature model (M3TM) and by the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch model (LLBM). Here, we revisit the basic three temperature model (3TM) and provide a general criterion for explaining the different time scales observed. We focus on the role of magnetic heat capacity, which we find mainly determines the slowing down of the demagnetization time with increasing ambient temperature and laser fluence. In this context, we clarify the role of magnetic heat capacity in the M3TM and compare the 3TM with the LLBM. To illustrate the role of magnetic heat capacity, we present a simulation of ultrafast demagnetization of Ni. Furthermore, we present time-resolved magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements of ultrafast demagnetization and specific heat of Fe 46 Cu 6 Pt 48 from 300 K to close to its Curie temperature. While most of the prior experimental research used high-fluence laser pulses causing sizable temperature excursions of the sample, our experiments involve small temperature excursions, which are crucial for studying the role of magnetic heat capacity in ultrafast demagnetization. Our experimental results corroborate that the slowing down of ultrafast demagnetization is dominated by the increase of the magnetic heat capacity near the Curie temperature.