We report on a magnetic anisotropy study of a single crystal TbFe 2 (1 1 1) thin film by magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). The Al 2O 3/Mo (50 nm)/TbFe 2 (24 nm)/Mo (2 nm)/YNi 2 system is elaborated by pulsed laser deposition. Large strains are induced by the epitaxy and as this compound shows a giant magnetostriction, they play an important role in the magnetic anisotropy. The anisotropy energy calculations are compared with the MOKE measurements in longitudinal configuration. In order to reach saturation along the hard [1 1 1] axis we used a novel MOKE set-up under a pulsed magnetic field up to 30 T.