Surface-plasmon Opto-magnetic Field Enhancement for All-optical Magnetization Switching*

All-optical magnetization switching, based on the inverse Faraday effect, has been shown to be an attractive method for achieving magnetization switching at ps speeds. Successful magnetization reversal in thin films has been demonstrated by using circularly polarized light. However, a method for all-optical switching of on-chip nanomagnets in high density memory modules has not been described. In this work we propose to use plasmonics, with CMOS compatible plasmonic materials, to achieve on-chip magnetization reversal in nanomagnets. Plasmonics allows light to be confined in dimensions much smaller than the diffraction limit of light. This in turn, yields higher localized electromagnetic field intensities. In this work, through simulations, we show that using localized surface plasmon resonances, it is possible to couple light to nanomagnets and achieve significantly higher opto-magnetic field values in comparison to free space light excitation.