  We study the precessional switching of the magnetization in microscopic spin
valve cells induced by ultra short in-plane hard axis magnetic field pulses.
Stable and highly efficient switching is monitored following pulses as short as
140 ps with energies down to 15 pJ. Multiple application of identical pulses
reversibly toggles the cell's magnetization be-tween the two easy directions.
Variations of pulse duration and amplitude reveal alter-nating regimes of
switching and non-switching corresponding to transitions from in-phase to
out-of-phase excitations of the magnetic precession by the field pulse. In the
low field limit damping becomes predominant and a relaxational reversal is
found allowing switching by hard axis fields below the in-plane anisotropy
field threshold.
