Generalized Helicity-Dependent Magnetization Switching via Substrate Phonons
Abstract
Coherent excitation of circularly-polarized substrate phonons can drive deterministic reversal of magnetization in an adjacent magnetic layer. However, the extent to which this substrate-mediated mechanism can be generalized across different materials remains unresolved. Here, we measure and compare the spectral dependence of helicity-dependent magnetization reversal in magnetic GdFeCo layers grown on a diverse set of diamagnetic substrates. Switching is observed for all investigated substrates, spanning six point groups and several infrared-active transverse-optical phonon symmetries. While the switching spectra broadly overlap with the Reststrahlen bands, their maxima are systematically shifted to wavelengths shorter than the corresponding transverse-optical phonon resonances. This spectral mismatch shows that substrate absorption alone does not determine the switching efficiency. Transfer-matrix calculations show that strong absorption concentrates energy deposition near the substrate interface, providing a possible source of local heating that could suppress magnetization reversal. Our results reveal the broad applicability of substrate-mediated phononic switching while showing that its efficiency is governed by the full optical response of the heterostructure rather than substrate absorption alone.
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BibTeX
@misc{fennema2026generalized,
title = {{Generalized Helicity-Dependent Magnetization Switching via Substrate Phonons}},
author = {F. G. N. Fennema and H. Damas and H. Yoshikawa and A. Tsukamoto and C. S. Davies and A. Kirilyuk},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.05064},
eprint = {2609.05064},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05064},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Generalized Helicity-Dependent Magnetization Switching via Substrate Phonons
AU - F. G. N. Fennema
AU - H. Damas
AU - H. Yoshikawa
AU - A. Tsukamoto
AU - C. S. Davies
AU - A. Kirilyuk
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.05064
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05064
AB - Coherent excitation of circularly-polarized substrate phonons can drive deterministic reversal of magnetization in an adjacent magnetic layer. However, the extent to which this substrate-mediated mechanism can be generalized across different materials remains unresolved. Here, we measure and compare the spectral dependence of helicity-dependent magnetization reversal in magnetic GdFeCo layers grown on a diverse set of diamagnetic substrates. Switching is observed for all investigated substrates, spanning six point groups and several infrared-active transverse-optical phonon symmetries. While the switching spectra broadly overlap with the Reststrahlen bands, their maxima are systematically shifted to wavelengths shorter than the corresponding transverse-optical phonon resonances. This spectral mismatch shows that substrate absorption alone does not determine the switching efficiency. Transfer-matrix calculations show that strong absorption concentrates energy deposition near the substrate interface, providing a possible source of local heating that could suppress magnetization reversal. Our results reveal the broad applicability of substrate-mediated phononic switching while showing that its efficiency is governed by the full optical response of the heterostructure rather than substrate absorption alone.
ER -