Thickness dependence of linear and quadratic magneto-optical Kerr effect in ultrathin Fe(001) films

Magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometry is one of the most widely employed techniques for the characterization of ferromagnetic thin-film samples. Some information, such as coercive fields or anisotropy strengths can be obtained without any knowledge of the optical and magneto-optical (MO) properties of the material. On the other hand, a quantitative analysis, which requires a precise knowledge of the material's index of refraction n and the MO coupling constants K and G is often desirable, for instance for the comparison of samples, which are different with respect to ferromagnetic layer thicknesses, substrates, or capping layers. While the values of the parameters n and the linear MO coupling parameter K reported by different authors usually vary considerably, the relevant quadratic MO coupling parameters G of Fe are completely unknown. Here, we report on measurements of the thickness dependence (0-60nm) of the linear and quadratic MOKE in epitaxial bcc-Fe(001) wedge-type samples performed at a commonly used laser wavelength of 670nm. By fitting the thickness dependence we are able to extract a complete set of parameters n, K, (G11 - G12), and G44 for the quantitative description of the MOKE of bcc-Fe(001). We find sizable different n, K, and G parameters for films thinner than about 10nm as compared to thicker films, which is indicative of a thickness dependence of the electronic properties or of surface contributions to the MOKE. The effect size of the quadratic MOKE is found to be about a third of the record values recently reported for Co2FeSi.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

First Principles Calculation of Anomalous Hall Conductivity in Ferromagnetic bcc Fe

We perform a first principles calculation of the anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic bcc Fe. Our theory identifies an intrinsic contribution to the anomalous Hall conductivity and relates it to the k-space Berry phase of occupied Bloch states. The theory is able to account for both dc and magneto-optical Hall conductivities with no adjustable parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, author list correcte

Investigation of the rise time and damping of spin excitations in Ni81Fe19 thin films

Copyright © 2001 American Institute of PhysicsThe rise and damping of spin excitations in three Ni81Fe19 films of thickness 50, 500, and 5000 Å have been studied with an optical pump–probe technique in which the sample is pumped with an optically triggered magnetic field pulse. The motion of the magnetization was described by the uniform mode solution of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The rise time of the pulsed field within the film was smallest in the 50 Å sample and was generally greater when the pulsed field was perpendicular to the film plane. The damping constant was smallest in the 500 Å sample. The variations in the rise time and damping are attributed to the presence of eddy currents and structural disorder in the films. Under certain excitation conditions a second mode was observed in the 5000 Å sample which we believe to be a magnetostatic surface mode

Spectral and Fermi surface properties from Wannier interpolation

We present an efficient first-principles approach for calculating Fermi surface averages and spectral properties of solids, and use it to compute the low-field Hall coefficient of several cubic metals and the magnetic circular dichroism of iron. The first step is to perform a conventional first-principles calculation and store the low-lying Bloch functions evaluated on a uniform grid of k-points in the Brillouin zone. We then map those states onto a set of maximally-localized Wannier functions, and evaluate the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian and the other needed operators between the Wannier orbitals, thus setting up an ``exact tight-binding model.'' In this compact representation the k-space quantities are evaluated inexpensively using a generalized Slater-Koster interpolation. Because of the strong localization of the Wannier orbitals in real space, the smoothness and accuracy of the k-space interpolation increases rapidly with the number of grid points originally used to construct the Wannier functions. This allows k-space integrals to be performed with ab-initio accuracy at low cost. In the Wannier representation, band gradients, effective masses, and other k-derivatives needed for transport and optical coefficients can be evaluated analytically, producing numerically stable results even at band crossings and near weak avoided crossings.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Optical and magneto-optical investigation on electronic structure of ordered ferromagnetic Fe3Pt

The optical and magneto-opticalproperties of ordered Fe3Pt have been investigated by spectroscopicellipsometry and magneto-opticalKerrspectroscopy. The diagonal component of the optical conductivity tensor of the compound exhibits a broad absorption peak at about 2 eV, which is shifted by about 0.5 eV to lower energies from the corresponding one in pure bcc Fe. The Kerr angle spectrum of the compound disperses quite similarly in both spectral trend and magnitude to that of pure Fe below 3.5 eV but differently above it. The lower-energy shift of the 2-eV-absorption structure of the compound is interpreted as due to the shift of the minority-spin Fe-d states toward EF through the hybridization with Pt-d states. The Kerr effect of the compound is attributable to a large spin-orbit coupling in Pt as well as the well-hybridized spin-polarized bands.The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 89 (2001): 244, and may be found at doi:10.1063/1.1331064 .</p

Enhanced Magneto-Optical Edge Excitation in Nanoscale Magnetic Disks

We report unexpected enhancements of the magneto-optical effect in ferromagnetic Permalloy disks of diameter D < 400 nm. The effect becomes increasingly pronounced for smaller D, reaching more than a 100% enhancement for D ¼ 100 nm samples. By means of experiments and simulations, the origin of this effect is identified as a nanoscale ring-shaped region at the disk edges, in which the magneto-optically induced electric polarization is enhanced. This leads to a modification of the electromagnetic near fields and causes the enhanced magneto-optical excitation, independent from any optical resonance.We acknowledge funding from the Basque Government (Program No. PI2012-47) and the Spanish Government (Project No.MAT2012-36844).Work at the Universidad de Cantabria has been supported by MICINN under Project No. FIS2013-45854-P

Electronic structure of Ni-Cu alloys studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Ellipsometric measurements of the complex dielectric functions of Ni and Ni1−cCuc alloys (c=0.1,0.3,0.4) have been carried out in the (1.2–5.5)-eV region. Two structures in the σ1 spectrum of pure Ni at about 1.5 and 4.7 eV are attributable to direct interband transitions in the band structure of ferromagnetic Ni. As the Cu concentration increases, the 4.7-eV edge (from transitions between the s-d–hybridized bands well below EF and the s-p-like bands above EF, e.g., X1→X’4) shifts to higher energies, while the 1.5-eV edge (from transitions between a p-like band below EF and a dband above EF along the L–W direction, e.g., L’2→L3) remains at the same energy. A structure grows in the (2–3)-eV region as Cu is added, and it is interpreted to be due to the transitions between the localized Cu subbands. All these observations are in accord with the calculated (coherent-potential-approximation) electronic structure of Ni-Cu alloys.This article is from Physical Review B 39 (1989): 9882, doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.39.9882. Posted with permission</p