Ferrimagnetic thin films formerly played a very important role in the development of information storage technology. Now they are again at the forefront of the rising field of spintronics. From new, more efficient magnetic recording media and sensors based on spin valves to the promising technologies envisaged by all-optical switching, ferrimagnets offer singular properties that deserve to be studies both from the point of view of fundamental physics and for applications. In this review, we will focus on ferrimagnetic thin films based on the combination of rare earths (RE) and transition metals (TM).
Keywords: all-optical switching; ferrimagnetism; information storage; multilayers; spin valves; spintronics; spin–orbit torque.