Electric Field-Induced Kerr Rotation on Metallic Surfaces

TL;DR

This study combines theoretical calculations and optical modeling to reveal that electric field-induced Kerr rotation in metallic surfaces results from both orbital moment accumulation and a surface Pockels effect, with comparable contributions affecting different polarizations.

Contribution

It identifies and quantifies the dual contributions of the orbital Edelstein effect and surface Pockels effect to Kerr rotation in metallic thin films, highlighting their different polarization effects.

Findings

Kerr rotation arises from electric field modifications of optical conductivity near the surface.

Orbital Edelstein and surface Pockels effects contribute comparably to Kerr rotation in Pt films.

The two effects influence s- and p-polarized light differently, with opposite Kerr angles for the Pockels effect.

Abstract

We use a combination of density functional theory calculations and optical modeling to establish that the electric field-induced Kerr rotation in metallic thin films has contributions from both non-equilibrium orbital moment accumulation (arising from the orbital Edelstein effect) and a heretofore overlooked surface Pockels effect. The Kerr rotation associated with orbital accumulation has been studied in previous works and is largely due to the dc electric field-induced change of the electron distribution function. In contrast, the surface Pockels effect is largely due to the dc field-induced change to the wave functions. Both of these contributions arise from the dual mirror symmetry breaking from the surface and from the dc applied field. Our calculations show that the resulting Kerr rotation is due to the dc electric field modification of the optical conductivity within a couple of nanometers from the surface, consistent with the dependence on the local mirror symmetry breaking at the surface. For thin films of Pt, our calculations show that the relative contributions of the orbital Edelstein and surface Pockels effects are comparable, and that they have different effects on Kerr rotation of $s$ and $p$ polarized light, $\theta_K^s$ and $\theta_K^p$. The orbital Edelstein effect yields similar values of $\theta_K^s$ and $\theta_K^p$, while the surface Pockels effect leads to opposing values of $\theta_K^s$ and $\theta_K^p$.