Engineering the polar magneto-optical Kerr effect in strongly strained L10-MnAl films

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how the polar magneto-optical Kerr effect in L10-MnAl films can be significantly enhanced through strain and magnetization tuning, revealing potential for spintronics and ultrafast optical devices.

Contribution

It introduces a method to engineer and enhance the magneto-optical Kerr effect in L10-MnAl films by controlling substrate temperature during growth.

Findings

Kerr rotation enhanced up to 5 times with increased substrate temperature.

Kerr ellipticity and complex Kerr angle magnitude can be similarly tuned.

Phase of the Kerr angle remains independent of magnetization.

Abstract

We report the engineering of the polar magnetooptical (MO) Kerr effect in perpendicularly magnetized L10-MnAl epitaxial films with remarkably tuned magnetization, strain, and structural disorder by varying substrate temperature (Ts) during molecular-beam epitaxy growth. The Kerr rotation was enhanced by a factor of up to 5 with Ts increasing from 150 to 350 oC as a direct consequence of the improvement of the magnetization. A similar remarkable tuning effect was also observed on the Kerr ellipticity and the magnitude of the complex Kerr angle, while the phase of the complex Kerr angle appears to be independent of the magnetization. The combination of the good semiconductor compatibility, the moderate coercivity of 0.3-8.2 kOe, the tunable polar MO Kerr effect of up to ~0.034o, and giant spin procession frequencies of up to ~180 GHz makes L10-MnAl films a very interesting MO material. Our results give insights on both the microscopic mechanisms of the MO Kerr effect in L10-MnAl alloys and their scientific and technological application potential in the emerging spintronics and ultrafast MO modulators.