Specific features of magnetooptical spectra of Co/SiO2 hybrid multilayers

Abstract

Magnetooptical spectra of Co(x)/SiO2(y) bilayers and [Co(x)/SiO2(y)]n hybrid multilayers (x and y are the layer thicknesses) are studied in the range 1.5–4.0 eV. In these layers, the ultrathin ferromagnetic layers are not continuous but consist of ellipsoidal Co nanoparticles with a concentration near the percolation threshold. It is found that (a) the sign, magnitude, and spectral shape of the magnetooptical signal depend strongly on the Co particle size; (b) the signal for the [Co(1.6 nm)/SiO2(3.0 nm)]6 multilayers at 3.0 eV has a record-high magnitude for Co-based structures, 3×10−2, which exceeds that for bulk Co about fivefold and about 50-fold that for a uniform Co film of an equivalent thickness; (c) the magnetooptical signal of multilayers depends non-linearly on the number of periods and the thickness of the dielectric layer y; and (d) the dependence of the signal of bilayers and multilayers with x=1.3 and 1.6 nm on the wavelength is nonmonotonic and exhibits clearly pronounced extrema. The data obtained for bilayers are attributed to the strong influence of percolation on the optical and magnetooptical parameters of the structure and interpreted in the framework of the effective medium approximation and macroscopic Fresnel magnetooptics.