Simultaneous in-plane Kerr effects in Fe/GaAs (110) thin films

Abstract

For many materials that can be magnetized, part of the magnetization process may be attributed to a rotation of the magnetization vector. In this context, a combination of the longitudinal and transverse magneto-optical Kerr effects are used to detect two orthogonal magnetization components in single-crystal Fe/GaAs (110) thin films. Hysteresis curves obtained by this magneto-optical technique are presented for fields along the in-plane [001], [11̄0], and [11̄1] crystal directions. For those curves that show signs of rotation, these data are simulated using a coherent rotation mechanism for the magnetization process and Fresnel reflection coefficients for the two Kerr effects. From the experimental data, it is found that the [11̄1] curves have shapes that are indicative of a rotational process. On the other hand, both the [001] and [11̄0] have magnetization curves that do not follow a simple rotation. From the coherent rotation model, there is qualitative agreement between the modeled and experimental data for the [11̄1].