Martin Bauer, Jürgen Fassbender, Burkard Hillebrands, R. L. Stamps

• We report results of the switching properties of Stoner-like magnetic particles subject to short magnetic field pulses, obtained by numerical investigations. We discuss the switching properties as a function of the external field pulse strength and direction, the pulse length and the pulse shape. For field pulses long compared to the ferromagnetic resonance precession time the switching behavior is governed by the magnetic damping term, whereas in the limit of short field pulses the switching properties are dominated by the details of the precession of the magnetic moment. In the latter case, by choosing the right field pulse parameters, the magnetic damping term is of minor importance and ultrafast switching can be achieved. Switching can be obtained in an enlarged angular range of the direction of the applied field compared to the case of long pulses.