Kovalenko, Oleksandr; Pezeril, Thomas; Temnov, Vasily V.

Physical Review Letters (2013), 110(26), 266602/1-266602/5 CODEN: PRLTAO; ISSN: 0031-9007. English.

It is shown theor. that a single acoustic pulse, a few picoseconds long, can reverse magnetization in a magnetostrictive material Terfenol-D. Following giant magnetoelastic changes of free energy density, the magnetization vector is ejected from a local in-plane energy minimum and decays into another minimum For an acoustic pulse duration significantly shorter than magnetization precession period .tau.ac << Tprec, the switching threshold is determined by the acoustic pulse area, i.e., pulse integral in the time domain, similar to coherent phenomena in optics. Simulation results are summarized in a magnetoacoustic switching diagram and discussed in the context of all-optical magnetization switching by circularly polarized light pulses.