Magnetooptic enhancement and magnetic properties in Fe antidot films with hexagonal symmetry

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that hexagonal antidot arrays in iron films significantly enhance magnetooptic Kerr rotation and alter magnetic hysteresis, primarily due to surface plasmon excitations, compared to continuous iron films.

Contribution

It provides experimental and simulation evidence of magnetooptic enhancement and magnetic property modification in hexagonal iron antidot films caused by surface plasmons.

Findings

Large Kerr rotation enhancement at surface plasmon frequencies

Significant changes in magnetic hysteresis behavior

Good agreement between experiments and simulations

Abstract

The magnetooptic and magnetic properties of hexagonal arrays of holes in optically thin iron films are presented. We analyze their dependence on the hole radius and compare the results to a continuous iron film of same thickness. We observe a large enhancement of the magnetooptic Kerr rotation with respect to that of the continuous film, at frequecies where surface plasmons excitations are expected. Additional simulations are in very good agreement with the experiment and thus confirm the effect of the surface plasmons on the Kerr rotation. The altering of the magnetic properties by the hole array is also visible in the hysteretic behavior of the sample where a dramatic change is observed.