Ultrafast Magnetization Switching Dynamics

The development of femto-second lasers has opened the way to create external stimuli such as optical or magnetic field pulses that are much shorter than fundamental time scales like spin-lattice relaxation or precession times and that can be used to change the magnetization direction on an ultra-fast time scale. In this chapter one of such approaches is discussed: precessional dynamics and switching by exploiting specifically designed magnetic field pulses, generated by photo-conductive switches.