Generalized analytic formulae for magneto-optical Kerr effects

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.368058· OSTI ID:636135

You, C ^[1]; Shin, S ^[2]

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1. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon 305-701 (Korea)

We have developed simplified analytic expressions for magneto-optical Kerr effects of both optically thick and ultrathin films in the general case, where a magnetic medium had an arbitrary direction of magnetization and a beam of light was obliquely incident to the medium. It was found that the simplified analytic formulae for the Kerr effects of p and s waves consisted of a product of two factors for both optically thick and ultrathin films: the prefactor dependent only on the optical parameters of the system and the main factor of the polar Kerr effect for a normal incidence case. We have also derived some useful relations among the Kerr effects in the polar and longitudinal configurations. We have demonstrated that the theoretical calculations using the present analytic formulae could well match the experimental polar and longitudinal Kerr rotation angles of magnetic films measured with varying incident angles. {copyright} {ital 1998 American Institute of Physics.} thinsp

• OSTI ID: 636135
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 84; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
FRESNEL REFLECTORS
INCIDENCE ANGLE
KERR EFFECT
MAGNETIC MATERIALS
MAGNETO-OPTICAL EFFECTS
THIN FILMS