Composition-tuned magneto-optical Kerr effect in L10-MnxGa films with giant perpendicular anisotropy

We report the large polar magnetooptical Kerr effect in L10-MnxGa epitaxial films with giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in a wide composition range. The Kerr rotation was enhanced by a factor of up to 10 by decreasing Mn atomic concentration, which most likely arises from the variation of the effective spin-orbit coupling strength, compensation effect of magnetic moments at different Mn atom sites, and overall strain. The Kerr ellipticity and the magnitude of the complex Kerr angle is found to have more complex composition-dependence that varies with the photon energy. These L10-MnxGa films show large Kerr rotation of up to 0.10o, high reflectivity of 35%-55% in a wide wavelength range of 400~850 nm, and giant magnetic anisotropic field of up to 210 kOe, making them an interesting material system for emerging spintronics and terahertz modulator applications

Tracers of chromospheric structure. I. CaII H&\&K emission distribution of 13000 F, G and K stars in SDSS DR7 spectroscopic sample

We present chromospheric activity index $S\rm_{HK}$ measurements for over 13,000 F, G and K disk stars with high signal-to-noise ratio ($>$ 60) spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) spectroscopic sample. A parameter $\delta$S is defined as the difference between $S\rm_{HK}$ and a `zero' emission line fitted by several of the most inactive stars. The $S\rm_{HK}$ indices of subgiant stars tend to be much lower than dwarfs, which provide a way to distinguish dwarfs and giants with relatively low resolution spectra. Cooler stars are generally more active and display a larger scatter than hotter stars. Stars associated with the thick disk are in general less active than those of the thin disk. The fraction of K dwarfs that are active drops with vertical distance from the Galactic plane. Metallicity affects $S\rm_{HK}$ measurements differently among F, G and K dwarfs in this sample. Using the open clusters NGC 2420, M67 and NGC6791 as calibrations, ages of most field stars in this SDSS sample range from 3-8 Gyr.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, AJ, 2013, 145, 14