An arrangement is described for performing magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy in polar geometry with a conventional C-frame or H-frame type electromagnet. It uses an additional mirror which eliminates the need for an electromagnet pole piece with an axial hole and allows for easy switching between polar MOKE geometry and longitudinal or transverse MOKE geometries. A theoretical ana...

Local coercivity variation of Co/Pd nanomultilayers has been investigated by measuring the polar Kerr hysteresis loops of the local areas of submicron size using a magneto-optic Kerr microscope system. Interestingly, the local coercivity distribution was very sensitive to an increase in the number of repeats: the ~2 Å Co/11 Å Pd)10 sample showed a smooth variation of the local coercivity, while...

We report on the magneto-optical measurements of an epitaxial SrRuO3 film grown on SrTiO3 s0 0 1d, which previously was determined to be single domain orientated by x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy techniques. Our experiments reveal a large Kerr rotation, which reaches a maximum value of about 0.5° at low temperature. By measuring magnetic hysteresis loops at different temperatures, we ...

We present a comparative study on an experimental and theoretical optimization of magneto-optical Kerr setups based on photoelastic modulation and phase sensitive detector methodology. The first and second harmonics, I omega,2 omega, of the reflected light intensity are measured for a CoO/Co magnetic reference film. The magnetic field dependence of the optical off-diagonal Fresnel reflection co...

We describe a two-color pump-probe scanning magneto-optical Kerr effect microscope which we have developed to investigate electron spin phenomena in semiconductors at cryogenic temperatures with picosecond time and micrometer spatial resolution. The key innovation of our microscope is the usage of an ultrafast "white light" supercontinuum fiber-laser source which provides access to the whole vi...