Terahertz modulation of the Faraday rotation by laser pulses via the optical Kerr effect

The magneto-optical Faraday effect played a crucial role in the elucidation of the electromagnetic nature of light. Today it is powerful means to probe magnetism and the basic operational principle of magneto-optical modulators. Understanding the mechanisms allowing for modulation of the magneto-optical response at terahertz frequencies may have far-reaching consequences for photonics, ultrafast optomagnetism and magnonics, as well as for future development of ultrafast Faraday modulators. Here we suggest a conceptually new approach for an ultrafast tunable magneto-optical modulation with the help of counter-propagating laser pulses. Using terbium gallium garnet (Tb3Ga5O12) we demonstrate the feasibility of such magneto-optical modulation with a frequency up to 1.1 THz, which is continuously tunable by means of an external magnetic field. Besides the novel concept for ultrafast magneto-optical polarization modulation, our findings reveal the importance of accounting for propagation effects in the interpretation of pump–probe magneto-optical experiments

Cathodoluminescence characterization of rare earth doped composite materials based on porous GaP

Porous GaP layers doped with erbium or europium elements have been obtained by electrochemical etching and further impregnation processes. The thermal treatments for optical activation of rare earth (RE) ions lead to partial oxidation of porous GaP skeleton and a composite material is obtained. The presence of ErPO_4 and EuPO_4 oxide nanophases is detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Visible luminescence from RE ions in the composite material has been investigated by means of the cathodoluminescence (CL) technique in the scanning electron microscope. Intense red and green emission lines characteristic from Er^3 and Eu^3 ions dominate the CL spectra in the case of parallel and regular nanotubes in the samples. The role of the oxygen content and the detected phases in the luminescence results are discussed