Critical fields and pulse durations for precessional switching of thin magnetic films

The precessional switching process of a uniformly magnetized thin film with in-plane anisotropy subject to pulsed magnetic fields applied in the film plane is analyzed. Critical fields required to achieve switching are studied for the case when the applied field is constant during the pulse duration and forms arbitrary angles with the hard axis. By using two integrals of magnetization motion, the explicit expressions for the critical field are derived. The formulas for durations of rectangular magnetic field pulses that guarantee the precessional switching of magnetization are presented as well.