Ellipsometric and magneto-optic properties of sputtered dysprosium-iron multilayers

Authors

• Thomas E. Tiwald, Unversity of Nebraska - Lincoln
• John A. Woollam, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

April 1988

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 63, 3215 (1988). ©1988 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

Ellipsometric and magneto-optical properties of Dy (3.5 Å thick) and Fe (2.5–12.5 Å thick) multilayers were investigated over the spectral range from 3000 to 8000 Å in magnetic fields to 0.21 T. In this range of layer thickness the magnetic anisotropy is vertical. Kerr rotations, were found to be weakly spectrally dependent, and as large as 0.06°. The magnetically driven change of ellipticity of reflected light was as large as 0.13, depending on sample and wavelength. Ellipsometric analysis of layer thickness was performed assuming a multilayer geometry. In addition, the optical constants were determined assuming the multilayer was a homogeneous layer with "effective" properties. Journal of Applied Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.