AVS 46th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Technical Group Tuesday Sessions
       Session MI-TuA

Invited Paper MI-TuA3
Element-Resolved Magnetism Using Core-Resonant Magneto-Optical Techniques

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 2:40 pm, Room 618/619

Session: Magnetic Spectroscopies
Presenter: J.B. Kortright, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Authors: J.B. Kortright, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
S.-K. Kim, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Most magnetic films of current interest involve multiple magnetic species either homogeneously or heterogeneously distributed in single or multiple layers; examples include alloy or compound thin films, exchange-coupled layers or phases, and interfacial magnetism. A variety of soft x-ray magneto-optical techniques can resolve the aggregate magnetic response of such materials into that of the individual magnetic constituents, thereby offering opportunities to obtain a more detailed microscopic understanding of the macroscopic properties of interest. We have been extending traditional photon-based magneto-optical techniques, embodied in the complex Faraday and Kerr effects, from the near-visible regions into the soft x-ray range containing core levels of the 3d transition metals with associated large resonances in magneto-optical properties. Measuring the polarization of transmitted and reflected beams, in addition to their intensity, provides information that can, e.g., determine elemental moments both longitudinal and transverse to the propagation direction. In addition to field-dependent element-resolved information (hysteresis loops), spatial information both laterally and in depth on the nanometer scale and up is available from scattering and microscopy. Examples of the application of these techniques to better understand questions in exchange-coupled layers and alloy films will be given. @FootnoteText@ This work was supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Science, Materials Sciences Division, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.