Enhancement of the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect via resonant tunneling in Au/Ce:YIG/Au trilayers and its application

We propose a new structure to enhance the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE) via resonant photon tunneling. In trilayer structures with a magnetic dielectric layer sandwiched between non-magnetic metal layers, an enhanced TMOKE can be observed. The TMOKE in Au/Ce:YIG/Au trilayers with different widths of magnetic dielectric layers are calculated using a 4  ×  4 transfer-matrix method, in which the maximum absolute value reaches 0.7. Based on the enhanced TMOKE, we apply the structure proposed above in magnetic field sensing, and TMOKE values are calculated when the external magnetic field intensity is increasing. Compared with other magnetic field sensing methods, the Au/Ce:YIG/Au trilayer possesses a very simple structure and shows high sensitivity to magnetic field variation, which is promising as a highly integrated and sensitive magneto-optical device. (paper)