Spin vacuum switching

Abstract

Ultrafast control over the magnetic orientation of matter represents a vital element of potential future spin-based electronics (“spintronics”). While physical mechanisms underpinning spin switching are established for picosecond time scales, we here present a physical route to magnetization toggle control, i.e., multiple switching events, at <100 femtoseconds. A minority spin current injected into a ferromagnet is shown to generate rapid depopulation of the minority channel below the ground-state Fermi level, creating a minority “spin vacuum” that then drives rapid charge redistribution from the majority channel and spin switching. We demonstrate that this mechanism reproduces many of the features of recent subpicosecond switching of ferromagnetic Co/Pt multilayers and provide simple practical rules for the design of materials via tailoring the electronic density of states to optimize spin vacuum control over magnetic order.