Published March 21, 2007 | Version v1
Journal article

Huge quadratic magneto-optical Kerr effect and magnetization reversal in the Co2FeSi Heusler compound

  • 1. Fachbereich Physik and Forschungsschwerpunkt MINAS, Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schroedinger-Strasse 56, D-67663 Kaiserslautern (Germany)
  • 2. Institut fuer Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55128 Mainz (Germany)
  • 3. Department of Physics, Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 15, 708 33, Ostrava-Poruba (Czech Republic)
  • 4. Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Staudingerweg 9, D-55128 Mainz (Germany)

Description

Co2FeSi(1 0 0) films with L21 structure deposited onto MgO(1 0 0) were studied using both the longitudinal and quadratic (QMOKE) magneto-optical Kerr effect. The films exhibit a huge QMOKE signal with a maximum contribution of up to 30 mdeg, which is the largest QMOKE signal in reflection that has been measured thus far. This large value is a fingerprint of an exceptionally large spin-orbit coupling of second or higher order. The Co2FeSi(1 0 0) films exhibit a rather large coercivity of 350 Oe and 70 Oe for film thicknesses of 22 nm and 98 nm, respectively. Despite the fact that the films are epitaxial, they do not provide an angular dependence of the anisotropy and the remanence in excess of 1% and 2%, respectively

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1088/0022-3727/40/6/S09;
PII
S0022-3727(07)34683-4;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Physics. D, Applied Physics
Journal Volume
40
Journal Issue
6
Journal Page Range
p. 1563-1569
ISSN
0022-3727
CODEN
JPAPBE