Optics of circularly polarized light waves in one-dimensional magneto-photonic crystals: Theory

A theory is presented for propagation of electromagnetic waves through one-dimensional magnetic Bragg structures (magneto-photonic crystals). Within the self-consistent Green-function technique the transfer matrices and magneto-optical characteristics are derived in terms of circularly polarized waves propagating in periodical arrays of alternating magnetic and dielectric layers. For finite-thickness magneto-photonic crystals, the Faraday rotation and other magneto-optical responses are demonstrated to change considerably in the spectral range of stop-bands, the magnetic modulation of the in-plane reflection intensity being essentially enhanced.     

Nongyrotropic magneto-optical effects in metal-insulator magnetic multilayer thin films

Nongyrotropic magneto-optical effects are investigated in metal-insulator magnetic multilayer thin films. These effects manifest themselves in changes in the coefficients of transmission and reflection of electromagnetic radiation from the surface of a multilayer film due to the crossover of the magnetic structure from an antiferromagnetic configuration to a ferromagnetic configuration. The nongyrotropic magneto-optical effect observed in reflected light is analyzed theoretically. It is assumed that the multilayer structure is exposed to radiation of a monochromatic plane wave polarized along the direction of magnetization of the film. The magneto-optical effect is described in terms of the permittivity tensor of the multilayer medium, which depends only on the light frequency. The Boltzmann kinetic equation is treated with allowance made for spin-dependent electron scattering both inside conducting layers and at rough interfaces. Using an Fe/C multilayer as an example, it is demonstrated that the nongyrotropic magneto-optical effect is equal in order of magnitude to the equatorial Kerr effect or other strong magneto-optical effects.     

Nonlinear magneto-optical effects in all-garnet magnetophotonic crystals

Nonlinear magneto-optical properties of all-garnet magnetophotonic crystals composed of alternating layers of ferromagnetic Bi₃Fe₅O₁₂ (BIG) and Sm₃Ga₅O₁₂ quarter-wavelength layers with a half-wavelength BIG microcavity mode are presented. The samples are grown by rf-magnetron sputtering on non-magnetic GGG substrate. Many-fold enhancement of the magnetization-induced effects in second-harmonic generation (SHG) as compared with linear magneto-optical effects are observed: the SHG magnetic contrast up to 50% and magnetization-induced rotation of the polarization plane of about 90° are measured at the resonance microcavity wavelengh of λ=779 nm.     

Anisotropic local-field effects of nanoparticles in plasmonic optics and magneto-optics

A theory of anisotropic optical local-field effects caused by resonantly polarizable small particles in multilayer polarizable media is developed. Considered is the model of a rectangular lattice of ellipsoidal nanoparticles with taking account of “image forces” at an interface in a layered medium. The lattice sums for anisotropic dipolar interactions are found using the Green’s function method in the quasi-point dipole approximation, and the effective polarizabilities of particles in a layer located near an interface are calculated self-consistently. The manifestation of an anisotropic local field of nanoparticles in optical radiation and propagation of evanescent waves responsible for optical near-field effects is investigated. Applications of the obtained results in the polar magneto-optical Kerr effect and reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy in propagating the polarized light along the normal to layers are considered. The resonant features in the spectra due to enhancement of the optical effects under excitation of surface (local) plasmons in nanoparticles of a noble metal are studied.     

Compact 1-D magnetophotonic crystals with simultaneous large magnetooptical Kerr rotation and high reflectance

We have investigated the case of reflection-type one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals (MPCs) in order to achieve high reflectance and high magnetooptical Kerr effect, simultaneously, utilizing a low number of magnetic layers. In a MPC structure including only one Bi:YIG magnetic layer, we have achieved a Kerr rotation as huge as θ_k ≈ 90° with a reflectance of R > 97%. In addition, we have introduced a thinner structure having three Bi:YIG layers and with approximately the same Kerr rotation and reflectance. Both the structures are very compact with lengths of less than 9 μm.     

Band gaps in periodically magnetized homogeneous anisotropic media

In [A. M. Merzlikin, A. P. Vinogradov, A. V. Dorofeenko, M. Inoue, M. Levy, A. B. Granovsky, Physica B 394 (2007) 277] it is shown that in anisotropic magnetophotonic crystal made of anisotropic dielectric layers and isotropic magneto-optical layers the magnetization leads to formation of additional band gaps (BG) inside the Brillouin zones. Due to the weakness of the magneto-optical effects the width of these BG is much smaller than that of usual BG forming on the boundaries of Brillouin zones. In the present communication we show that though the anisotropy suppresses magneto-optical effects. An anisotropic magnetophotonic crystal made of anisotropic dielectric layers and anisotropic magneto-optical; the width of additional BG may be much greater than the width of the usual Brillouin BG. Anisotropy tends to suppress Brillouin zone boundary band gap formation because the anisotropy suppresses magneto-optical properties, while degenerate band gap formation occurs around points of effective isotropy and is not suppressed.     

Magneto-optical effects for detection of in-plane magnetization in plasmonic crystals

Methods for magneto-optical detection of the in-plane magnetization in a magnetic film due to the deposition of a one-dimensional metallic diffraction grating on the film have been considered. This structure is a magnetoplasmonic crystal, in which the excitation of the waveguide and plasmon modes leads to the appearance of five resonant magneto-optical effects that consist in a change of the intensity, the polarization, and the phase of the transmitted and reflected waves. The conditions responsible for the origin of these effects and their magnitude are determined by the configuration of the incident light, the parameters of the metallic grating, and the chemical composition of the magnetic layer. It has been found that the magnetophotonic intensity effects are the most optimal for the detection of the in-plane magnetization. The influence of the parameters of the metallic grating on the magneto-optical effects has been analyzed and the most optimal conditions for the observation of these effects have been determined. It has also been found that an increase in the concentration of bismuth in a magnetic dielectric material can lead to a weakening of the optical and magneto-optical responses.     

Features of the stokes vector of polarized radiation when passing through a magneto-optical crystal under conditions of magnetomechanical resonance

Components of the Stokes vector are shown to undergo amplitude- and phase-frequency variations for a magneto-optical thin rod-shaped crystal located under conditions of magnetomechanical resonance when the variable magnetic field is directed at an acute angle to the light propagation axis coinciding with the crystal oscillation axis. It is noted that the phase relations for these components must be taken into account for polarized light when finding the connection between the variable and constant components of the Stokes vector.     

Magnetic and magneto-optical properties of epitaxial cobalt films grown on a corrugated CaF<Subscript>2</Subscript>/Si surface

The magnetic properties of CaF₂/Co/CaF₂(110)/Si(001) heterostructures fabricated by molecular-beam epitaxy and having a corrugated CaF₂ buffer surface were studied. The optical and magneto-optical properties of these structures reflect the C _2v symmetry of the corrugated structure surface. The studies of hysteresis loops using the longitudinal and transverse magneto-optical Kerr effects under oblique light incidence and of magneto-optical phenomena under near-normal light incidence demonstrate that the corrugated structure surface leads to optical and magneto-optical anisotropies. The magnetization of such structures occurs via coherent magnetization rotation over a wide magnetic-field range. The magnetic anisotropy of these structures is described using a Gaussian distribution of easy axes of magnetization in cobalt granules about the direction parallel to the groove direction. The asymmetry of hysteresis loops of the rotation of the plane of polarization detected under oblique and normal light incidence is shown to be related to the contributions to the effective film permittivity that are quadratic in the magnetic moment.     

High performance reflection-type 1D magnetophotonic crystals with flat-top responses

In this paper, a theoretical study on the case of reflection-type one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals (MPCs) has been carried out to establish high performance structures having concurrent high reflectance and large Kerr rotation with flat-top responses. The introduced MPCs are able to maintain their flat-top responses in a wide range of incident angle. For practical purposes, we have also inquired the influence of the error in the thickness of individual layers on the operational parameters of the MPCs. The reflectance flatness and bandwidth of the MPCs are appreciably stable against the imposed thickness errors.     

Reciprocity of Faraday effect in ferrofluid: Comparison with magneto-optical glass

The transmission light intensity method is carried out on a classical platform to study the reciprocity of Faraday effect in water-based Fe₃O₄ ferrofluid and its diluents. Setting the polarization direction of the analyzer at an angle of 45° to that of the polarizer, the switchable DC magnetic field and the alternating magnetic field are imposed to ferrofluid. The ferrofluid film is replaced by magneto-optical glass for contrastive experiments. The results indicate that ferrofluid is different with magneto-optical glass. Even though the direction of magnetic field is reversed, the rotation direction of the polarized light does not change for ferrofluid. The theoretical model of magneto-optical rotation was used to describe the origin of the reciprocity of Faraday effect in ferrofluid and the non-reciprocity in magneto-optical glass. These findings suggest that the magnetic moments of nanoparticles in ferrofluid tend to the same orientation with the magnetic field because of the rotation of particles.     

反射型磁光多层膜隔离器工作稳定性的研究

与单纯的磁光晶体相比,由磁光介质与电介质周期性或准周期性排列构成的一维磁光光子晶 体能够显著增强磁光效应,可以用于实现小尺度的磁光隔离器,从而大大减小器件的尺寸. 给出更为一般的可用于求解斜入射情况下偏振光在各向异性介质中传播时的传输矩阵方法, 并用这种方法在波长为1053μm处,针对两种“三明治”型的反射磁光多层膜隔离器的 结构,具体讨论了器件应用时入射角度及工艺制作时膜层制备厚度对它们工作稳定性的影响 .发现中心磁光介质夹层较厚的结构具有膜层数目少、工作稳定性好的优点. 关键词： 光隔离器 磁光效应 一维光子晶体     

One-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals with magnetooptical double layers

One-dimensional magnetophotonic microcavity crystals with nongarnet dielectric mirrors are created and investigated. The defect layers in the magnetophotonic crystals are represented by two bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet Bi:YIG layers with various bismuth contents in order to achieve a high magnetooptical response of the crystals. The parameters of the magnetophotonic crystal layers are optimized by numerical solution of the Maxwell equations by the transfer matrix method to achieve high values of Faraday rotation angle Θ _F and magnetooptical Q factor. The calculated and experimental data agree well with each other. The maximum values of Θ _F =–20.6°, Q = 8.1° at a gain t = 16 are obtained for magnetophotonic crystals with m = 7 pairs of layers in Bragg mirrors, and the parameters obtained for crystals with m = 4 and t = 8.5 are Θ _F =–12.5° and Q = 14.3°. It is shown that, together with all-garnet and multimicrocavities magnetophotonic crystals, such structures have high magnetooptical characteristics.     

Specific features of light propagation in a periodic structure with regular arrangement of defect layers

Specific features of light propagation in a periodic structure with a large number of identical regularly arranged defect layers are considered. Rigorous analytical formulas for the transmittance and reflectance of the structures are derived. It is shown that the presence of periodically arranged inclusions may give rise to new photonic band gaps, with their positions controlled by the dielectric properties and thickness of the defect layers.     

Enhancement of the magnetorefractive effect in magnetophotonic crystals

The magnetorefractive effect in a one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystal, more specifically, a photonic crystal (SiO₂/Ta₂O₅) containing a built-in defect in the form of a thin layer of the Co-(Al-O) magnetic nanocomposite, is studied in a computer simulation experiment. The structure of the unit cell of the photonic crystal in which most of the field energy is concentrated in cells nearest to the defect is determined. This makes it possible to increase the defect-mode Q factor and, owing to the multiple passage of light along the defect, to enhance the magnetorefractive effect by more than one order of magnitude as compared to a thin film on a substrate and by two orders of magnitude as compared to thick films. The reflectance of these structures in an applied magnetic field can be as high as 60%.     

Magneto-optical properties of one-dimensional conjugated magnetophotonic crystals heterojunctions

The 4 × 4 transfer matrix for the magneto-optical layer at oblique incidence is derived. With the help of the transfer matrix, the magneto-optical properties of one-dimensional conjugated magnetophotonic crystals (MPC) heterojunctions are studied. The results show that there exists a Tamm state localized at the interface between conjugated MPC. By coupling the Tamm states, high transmittance and large Faraday rotation angle can be obtained simultaneously in conjugated MPC multiple heterojunctions structure. It can be used to make novel mageto-optical device, promised to further application in optical information process.     

Nonlinear magneto-optical effects in cold atoms of ^87Rb

With laser-cooled cold 87Rb atoms as a magneto-optical medium, a weak right circularly polarized probe field and frequency modulation technique are used to detect the magnetic distribution of the quadrupole field. A two-peak dispersion-like signal other than that of the usual nonlinear magneto-optical effect mentioned in other papers is obtained.     

非线性克尔效应对飞秒激光偏振的超快调制

研究了近红外飞秒激光的偏振在太赫兹频率的超快调制.利用抽运-探测光谱技术,通过改变两个脉冲之间的延迟时间可以控制光脉冲的旋转角.在Li：NaTb（WO₄）₂磁光晶体中观察到探测光的偏振随延迟时间变化的高速振荡,振荡信号的中心频率为0.19 THz.这种超快偏振调制现象可以解释为,抽运-探测实验构置中,前向传播的抽运光诱导的光学克尔非线性引起被晶体远端表面所反射的背向传播的探测光脉冲偏振面的额外旋转.通过改变抽运光的圆偏振旋性可以控制探测光调制信号的相位和振幅.实验结果表明,非线性光学克尔效应可以作为一种全新的手段,在磁光晶体中实现近红外飞秒激光以太赫兹频率的超快偏振调控.这将在超快磁光调制器等全光器件中得以应用.实验结果将有助于偏振依赖的超快动力学过程的研究.     

Photoinduced precession of magnetization in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As

Precession of magnetization induced by pulsed optical excitation is observed in a ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As by time-resolved magneto-optical measurements. It appears as complicated oscillations of a polarization plane of linearly polarized probe pulses, but is reproduced by gyromagnetic theory incorporating an impulsive change in an effective magnetic field due to a change in the magnetic anisotropy. The shape of the impulse suggests a significant nonthermal contribution of photogenerated carriers to the change in anisotropy through spin-orbit interaction.     

Stress relaxation in Fe/Si neutron supermirrors by He irradiation

Magnetic supermirrors are widely used in polarized neutron applications. A key issue in producing these multilayer structures is to avoid residual stress in the layers, which may cause the layers to peel off. In this work He⁺ ion irradiation of 500 keV energy was applied at fluences of 1, 24, 50, 100×10¹⁴ ions/cm² with the aim of reducing residual stress. Structural, magnetic and neutron-optical properties were investigated by grazing incidence high-angle X-ray diffraction, magneto-optical Kerr effect, conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy and polarized neutron reflectometry. We find a monotonous decrease of the tensile stress upon irradiation from 1.76 to 0.37 GPa with a coupled decrease of neutron reflectivity at the critical angle and decrease of the maximum polarizing efficiency from 23% to 4% at the highest fluence compared to the as-prepared reference supermirror. The supermirrors exhibit a superposition of uniaxial and fourfold in-plane magnetic anisotropy.