Switching behavior of Stoner-like magnetic thin film elements

We report results of the switching properties of thin magnetic films described by Stoner-like magnetic blocks subject to ultrashort, laterally localized magnetic field pulses, obtained by numerical investigations. Perpendicularly magnetized films exhibit a magnetization reversal due to a 4 ps magnetic field pulse, which can be explained with a coherent rotation model. Although the magnetic field pulse is short compared to the ferromagnetic resonance precession time, the time needed for the relaxation of the magnetization to the equilibrium state is rather large. In addition, we show numerical results for the magnetization reversal of an in-plane magnetized sample with uniaxial in-plane anisotropy.