Optical and magneto-optical properties of ferromagnetic full-Heusler films: experiments and first-principles calculations

Abstract

We report a joint theoretical and experimental study focused on understanding the optical and magneto-optical properties of Co-based full-Heusler compounds. We show that magneto-optical spectra calculated within ab-initio density functional theory are able to uniquely identify the features of the experimental spectra in terms of spin resolved electronic transitions. As expected for 3d-based magnets, we find that the largest Kerr rotation for these alloys is of the order of 0.3o in polar geometry. In addition, we demonstrate that (i) multilayered structures have to be carefully handled in the theoretical calculations in order to improve the agreement with experiments, and (ii) combined theoretical and experimental investigations constitute a powerful approach to designing new materials for magneto-optical and spin-related applications

arXiv comment20 pages, including 6 figures and 1 table. 40 refs. To be published in Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (5)

• Slater-Pauling Behavior of the Half-Ferromagnetic Full-Heusler Alloys
• Origin and Properties of the Gap in the Half-Ferromagnetic Heusler Alloys
• Introduction to half-metallic Heusler alloys: Electronic Structure and Magnetic Properties
• Spin injection from the Heusler alloy Co_2MnGe into Al_0.1Ga_0.9As/GaAs heterostructures
• Preparation and structural properties of thin films and multilayers of the Heusler compounds Cu2MnAl, Co2MnSn, Co2MnSi and Co2MnGe

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Pseudo-potentials based first-principles approach to the magneto-optical Kerr effect: from metals to the inclusion of local fields and excitonic effects
• Electronic structure, optical and magnetic properties of Co${}_2$FeGe Heusler alloy films