Hybrid Magneto Photonic Material Structure for Plasmon Assisted Magnetic Switching*

We have proposed the use of surface plasmon resonances at the interface of hybrid magneto-photonic heterostructures [Opt. Mat. Exp., 7, 4316 (2017)] for all-optical control of the macroscopic spin orientation in nanostructures in fs time scales. This requires strong spin-photon coupling for the resonant enhancement of opto-magnetic fields, generated through the inverse Faraday effect, in magnetic nanostructures with perpendicular anisotropy. Here we report on the development of nm thick interlayers to control the growth orientation of hcp-Co alloys grown on refractory plasmonic materials to align the magnetic axis out-of-plane, thereby meeting key requirements for the realization of ultrafast magneto-photonic devices.