Time-resolved imaging of pulse-induced magnetization reversal with a microwave assist field

AbstractThe reversal of the magnetization under the influence of a field pulse has been previously predicted to be an incoherent process with several competing phenomena such as domain wall relaxation, spin wave-mediated instability regions and vortex-core mediated reversal dynamics. However, there has been no study on the direct observation of the switching process with the aid of a microwave signal input. We report a time-resolved imaging study of magnetization reversal in patterned magnetic structures under the influence of a field pulse with microwave assistance. The microwave frequency is varied to demonstrate the effect of resonant microwave-assisted switching. We observe that the swi…