Controlling the Transverse Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect in Cr/NiFe Bilayer Thin Films by Changing the Thicknesses of the Cr Layer

Hisham Hashim; Mikhail Kozhaev; Pavel Kapralov; Larissa Panina; Vladimir Belotelov; Ivana Víšová; Dagmar Chvostová; Alexandr Dejneka; Ihor Shpetnyy; Vitalii Latyshev; Serhii Vorobiov; Vladimír Komanický

doi:10.3390/nano10020256

Controlling the Transverse Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect in Cr/NiFe Bilayer Thin Films by Changing the Thicknesses of the Cr Layer

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Feb 1;10(2):256. doi: 10.3390/nano10020256.

Authors

Hisham Hashim^{1

2}, Mikhail Kozhaev^{3

4}, Pavel Kapralov³, Larissa Panina^{1

5}, Vladimir Belotelov³, Ivana Víšová⁶, Dagmar Chvostová⁶, Alexandr Dejneka⁶, Ihor Shpetnyy⁷, Vitalii Latyshev⁸, Serhii Vorobiov^{7

8}, Vladimír Komanický⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Technology of Electronic Materials, National University of Science and Technology (MISIS), Moscow 119049, Russia.
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt.
³ Russian Quantum Center, Skolkovo, Moscow Region 143025, Russia.
⁴ Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia.
⁵ Institute of Physics, Mathematics and IT, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad 236041, Russia.
⁶ Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 18221, Czech Republic.
⁷ Sumy State University, 2, Rimsky Korsakov Str., 40007 Sumy, Ukraine.
⁸ Institute of Physics, P.J. Šafárik University, 041 80 Košice, Slovak.

Abstract

Here, we demonstrate the impact of ferromagnetic layer coating on controlling the magneto-optical response. We found that the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE) signal and TMOKE hysteresis loops of Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ thin layers coated with a Cr layer show a strong dependence on the thickness of the Cr layer and the incidence angle of the light. The transmission and reflection spectra were measured over a range of incidence angles and with different wavelengths so as to determine the layers' optical parameters and to explain the TMOKE behavior. The generalized magneto-optical and ellipsometry (GMOE) model based on modified Abeles characteristic matrices was used to examine the agreement between the experimental and theoretical results. A comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis reveals the possibility to create a TMOKE suppression/enhancement coating at specific controllable incidence angles. This has potential for applications in optical microscopy and sensors.

Keywords: ferromagnetic coupling (FMC); magnetic nanostructure multilayers; reflectivity; suppression or enhancement of magneto-optical properties; transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE).