Origin of anomalous hysteresis loops induced by femtosecond laser pulses in GdFeCo amorphous films

Abstract

A controllable pump-pulse-number magneto-optical Kerr technique combined with an initializing field scanning approach is developed to eliminate and identify memory and accumulation effects, respectively, from external field history and multiple pulse excitations. A series of anomalous loops of GdFeCo films are measured for different amount of pump pulses using this technique, revealing that serious memory and accumulation effects exist in continuous-pulse-pumped anomalous hysteresis loops which show illusory information of hot coercivity and degree of magnetization reversal. Single-pulse-induced anomalous loop reveals that the hot coercivity shown by continuous-pulse-pumped anomalous loops is not the minimum external field that drives real magneto-optical recording.