No Arabic abstract
We report a giant enhancement of the mid-infrared (MIR) magneto-optical complex Kerr angle (polarization change of reflected light) in a variety of materials grown on SiC. In epitaxially-grown multilayer graphene, the Kerr angle is enhanced by a factor of 68, which is in good agreement with Kerr signal modeling. Strong Kerr enhancement is also observed in Fe films grown on SiC and Al-doped bulk SiC. Our experiments and modelling indicate that the enhancement occurs at the high-energy edge of the SiC reststrahlen band where the real component of the complex refractive index n passes through unity. Furthermore, since the signal is greatly enhanced when n=1, the enhancement is predicted to exist over the entire visible/infrared (IR) spectrum for a free-standing film. We also predict similar giant enhancement in both Faraday (transmission) and Kerr rotation for thin films on a metamaterial substrate with refractive index n=-1. This work demonstrates that the substrate used in MOKE measurements must be carefully chosen when investigating magneto-optical materials with weak MOKE signals or when designing MOKE-based optoelectronic devices.
Optical and magneto-optical properties of ZnMnO films grown at low temperature by Atomic Layer Deposition are discussed. A strong polarization of excitonic photoluminescence is reported, surprisingly observed without splitting or spectral shift of excitonic transitions. Present results suggest possibility of Mn recharging in ZnO lattice. Strong absorption, with onset at about 2.1 eV, is related to Mn 2+ to 3+ photo-ionization. We propose that the observed strong circular polarization of excitonic emission is of a similar character as the one observed by us for ZnSe:Cr.
Multilayer films of ZnO with Co were deposited on glass substrates then annealed in a vacuum. The magnetisation of the films increased with annealing but not the magnitude of the magneto-optical signals. The dielectric functions for the films were calculated using the MCD spectra. A Maxwell Garnett theory of a metallic Co/ZnO mixture is presented. The extent to which this explains the MCD spectra taken on the films is discussed.
We report the engineering of the polar magnetooptical (MO) Kerr effect in perpendicularly magnetized L10-MnAl epitaxial films with remarkably tuned magnetization, strain, and structural disorder by varying substrate temperature (Ts) during molecular-beam epitaxy growth. The Kerr rotation was enhanced by a factor of up to 5 with Ts increasing from 150 to 350 oC as a direct consequence of the improvement of the magnetization. A similar remarkable tuning effect was also observed on the Kerr ellipticity and the magnitude of the complex Kerr angle, while the phase of the complex Kerr angle appears to be independent of the magnetization. The combination of the good semiconductor compatibility, the moderate coercivity of 0.3-8.2 kOe, the tunable polar MO Kerr effect of up to ~0.034o, and giant spin procession frequencies of up to ~180 GHz makes L10-MnAl films a very interesting MO material. Our results give insights on both the microscopic mechanisms of the MO Kerr effect in L10-MnAl alloys and their scientific and technological application potential in the emerging spintronics and ultrafast MO modulators.
In this paper we used Raman spectroscopy to investigate the optical properties of vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films during the thermally induced insulating to metallic phase transition. We observed a significant difference in transition temperature in similar VO2 films grown on quartz and sapphire substrates: the film grown on quartz displayed the phase transition at a lower temperature (Tc=50C) compared a film grown on sapphire (Tc=68C). We also investigated differences in the detected Raman signal for different wavelengths and polarizations of the excitation laser. We found that for either substrate, a longer wavelength (in our case 785 nm) yielded the clearest VO2 Raman spectra, with no polarization dependence.
Magneto-optical spectroscopy based on the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE) is a sensitive method for investigation of magnetically-ordered media. However, in magnetic materials the optical transitions are usually characterized by spectrally broad resonances with widths considerably exceeding the Zeeman splitting in the magnetic field. Here we investigate experimentally and theoretically the TMOKE in the vicinity of relatively narrow optical resonances provided by confined quantum systems. For experimental demonstration we use the exciton resonance in a (Cd,Mn)Te diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum well, where the strong exchange interaction with magnetic ions enables the giant Zeeman splitting of exciton spin states $Delta$ in magnetic fields of a few Tesla. In the weak coupling regime, when the splitting $Delta$ is smaller than the spectral broadening of the optical transitions $Gamma$, the TMOKE magnitude grows linearly with the increase of the Zeeman splitting and its spectrum has an S-shape, which remains virtually unchanged in this range. In the strong coupling regime ($Delta>Gamma$) the TMOKE magnitude saturates, while its spectrum is strongly modified resulting in the appearance of two separate peaks. The TMOKE is sensitive not only to the sample surface but can be used to probe the confined electronic states in depth if the upper layer is sufficiently transparent. Our results demonstrate that TMOKE of spectrally narrow resonances serves as a versatile tool for probing the charge and spin structure of electronic states in various confined quantum systems and can be used for spin tomography in combination with the conventional polar Kerr effect.