Engineering the polar magneto-optical Kerr effect in strongly strained L10–MnAl films

Abstract

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 °C 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 ~0.034°, and giant spin precession frequencies of up to ~180 GHz makes L10–MnAl films a very interesting MO material. Our results give insights into 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.