Propagation of circularly polarized waves in one-dimensional bragg structures (magnetophotonic crystals)

Abstract

A theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in structures formed by alternating magnetic and dielectric layers is proposed. Models of macroscopically thick and atomically thin layers magnetized perpendicular to their plane are considered. Transfer matrices of circularly polarized waves and characteristics of light propagation in periodic magnetic structures under normal incidence are obtained by the self-consistent electrodynamic Green’s function method in analytic form. The results obtained are employed to analyze linear-in-magnetization magneto-optical effects in the transmittance and reflectance spectra of one-dimensional magnetic Bragg structures called magnetophotonic crystals. For structures of finite thickness, Faraday rotation and other observable magneto-optical quantities are shown to vary appreciably in the spectral region of the stop bands of a magnetophotonic crystal. This is paralleled by a substantial enhancement of the magnetic-fieldinduced modulation of the reflectance of light polarized in the analyzer plane.