Influence of magnetic fields on ultrafast laser-induced switching dynamics in Co/Gd bilayers

Recently it has been shown that not only GdFeCo alloys exhibit single-pulse helicity-independent all-optical switching, but that this effect is also seen in Co/Gd bilayers. However, there have been no reports on the explicit time dynamics of the switching process in these bilayers as of yet. Furthermore, time-resolved measurements of switching of other materials are typically done with a constant applied field to reset the magnetization between consecutive pulses and thus ensure repeatable behavior. In this paper we experimentally resolve the explicit dynamics of the switching process in Co/Gd, and the influence of applied magnetic fields on the switching process. We observe that after a switch within several picoseconds, the magnetization switches back at a time scale of hundreds of picoseconds. This backswitch includes a strong dependence on the magnetic field strength even at subtesla fields, significantly smaller than the exchange fields that govern the switching dynamics. This surprising behavior is explained by a combination of longitudinal switching (on a picosecond timescale), precessional switching (on a nanosecond time scale), and domain-wall motion (on a timescale of 10ns and beyond). We discuss these different switching regimes and their relative importance using simple model calculations.