Optical and magneto-optical properties of ferromagnetic full-Heusler films: experiments and first-principles calculations

TL;DR

This study combines experiments and first-principles calculations to analyze the optical and magneto-optical properties of Co-based full-Heusler films, revealing insights into their electronic transitions and potential for spintronic applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of ab-initio density functional theory in interpreting magneto-optical spectra and highlights the importance of multilayer modeling for accurate predictions.

Findings

Magneto-optical spectra are linked to spin-resolved electronic transitions.

Largest Kerr rotation observed is about 0.3 degrees in polar geometry.

Careful multilayer modeling improves agreement between theory and experiment.

Abstract

We report a joint theoretical and experimental study focused on understanding the optical and magneto-optical properties of Co-based full-Heusler compounds. We show that magneto-optical spectra calculated within ab-initio density functional theory are able to uniquely identify the features of the experimental spectra in terms of spin resolved electronic transitions. As expected for 3d-based magnets, we find that the largest Kerr rotation for these alloys is of the order of 0.3o in polar geometry. In addition, we demonstrate that (i) multilayered structures have to be carefully handled in the theoretical calculations in order to improve the agreement with experiments, and (ii) combined theoretical and experimental investigations constitute a powerful approach to designing new materials for magneto-optical and spin-related applications