Reorientation of magnetic stripe domains by mid-infrared pulses

Infrared pulses can be used to generate ultrafast strains in magnetic dielectrics, leading to magnetisation switching. Here, the authors find that in multidomain samples, such strains can drive domain reorientation, with the domains becoming aligned along the magnetocrystalline anisotropy axes. Moreover, the application of subsequent pulses leads to the pushing of the reoriented domains far beyond the radius of the infrared pulse.