We report the experimental observation of spin-orbit torque induced switching of perpendicularly magnetized $\mathrm{Pt}/\mathrm{Co}$ elements in a time resolved stroboscopic experiment based on high resolution Kerr microscopy. Magnetization dynamics is induced by injecting subnanosecond current pulses into the bilayer while simultaneously applying static in-plane magnetic bias fields. Highly reproducible homogeneous switching on time scales of several tens of nanoseconds is observed. Our findings can be corroborated using micromagnetic modeling only when including a fieldlike torque term as well as the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction mediated by finite temperature.

• Received 14 March 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.257201