Precessional switching of a 3×1 micrometer elliptical element in a crossed-wire geometry

Switching dynamics of a thin-film 3×1 micrometer elliptical permalloy element in a crossed-wire geometry was investigated for different pulsed field amplitudes using time resolved scanning Kerr microscopy. We observed coherent switching of magnetization by fast-risetime hard axis magnetic field pulses. The combined action of easy- and hard-axis fields resulted in reliable half-select switching of the sample magnetization. Varying the delay between the pulses one can control the postswitching oscillations of magnetization or eliminate them altogether achieving an ultrafast half-select switching of risetime of just 180 ps. Our results agree quantitatively with Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert-based micromagnetic simulations.