Thickness dependence of linear and quadratic magneto-optical Kerr effect in ultrathin Fe(001) films
| dc.creator | Buchmeier, M. | |
| dc.creator | Schreiber, R. | |
| dc.creator | Bürgler, D. E. | |
| dc.creator | Schneider, C. M. | |
| dc.date | 2008-03-11 | |
| dc.date | 2008-05-07 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T12:48:50Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T12:48:50Z | |
| dc.description | 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. | |
| dc.description | 8 pages, 5 figures | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.1599 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/0803.1599 | |
| dc.identifier | Phys. Rev. B 79, 064402 (2009) | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.79.064402 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/222192 | |
| dc.subject | Materials Science | |
| dc.title | Thickness dependence of linear and quadratic magneto-optical Kerr effect in ultrathin Fe(001) films | |
| dc.type | text |