Accumulative Magnetic Switching of Ultrahigh-Density Recording Media by Circularly Polarized Light

In addition to heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), all-optical switching (AOS) is an attractive technology for the next generation of ultrahigh-density, ultrafast, ultralow-power digital storage. The authors demonstrate cumulative magnetization switching in granular Fe-Pt-C due to multiple pulses of circularly polarized light. While this base process is statistical, adding a modest external magnetic field allows deterministic switching, which shows that this form of AOS can aid writing in a HAMR-like recording process.