ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and its applications to the study of magnetic thin films and multilayers due to the dramatically enhanced dichroic effect and its element specific nature. In this work, the soft x-ray magneto-optical Kerr effect, an effect closely related to MCD, is investigated. Detailed comparison between MCD and the Kerr effect is discussed. As an example, recent results from a thin bcc Co film will be presented. In the Kerr effect measurement, specular reflectivity as a function of incident angle and photon energy was measured using both linearly polarized and circularly polarized x rays. To give the largest effect, in the case of linearly polarized light, specular reflectivity was measured in the transverse configuration, while in the case of circularly polarized light, the measurement was carried out in the longitudinal configuration. In both cases very large changes in reflectivity, up to 40% in the linearly polarized case and 75% in the circularly polarized case, were observed near the Co LII and LIII absorption edges upon reversal of the direction of the magnetic field. These results agree very well with a macroscopic model calculation.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.355575
Permalink