MagnetoOptical Kerr Effect of Iron Thin Films on Paramagnetic Substrates.pdfVIP

Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect of Iron Thin Films on Paramagnetic Substrates A. Debernardi,a,b I. Galanakis,c M. Alouani,a, ∗ and H. Dreyss´e a a Institut de Physique et Chimie des materiaux de Strasbourg, UMR 7504 du CNRS, Universit´e Louis Pasteur, 23, rue du Loess, 67037 Strasbourg, France, European Union b Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM), Udr Trieste Universit´a/SISSA, Dip. Fisica Teorica, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 - Trieste, Italy, European Union c Institut f¨ur Festk¨orperforschung, Forschungszentrum Julich,¨ D-52425 J¨ulich, Germany, European Union (Dated: February 1, 2008) First principles calculations of the magnetic properties and the magneto-optical Kerr effect 2 (MOKE) of iron thin films epitaxially grown on the [001] surface of paramagnetic metals: copper, 0 silver, gold, palladium, and platinum are presented. The role of hybridization with the substrate 0 is investigated and it is shown how the relaxation effects influence the complex Kerr angle. The 2 results are obtained by means of the relativistic full-potential linear muffin-tin method, and the film v is modeled using a slab geometry within a supercell technique. o N PACS numbers: 71.15,75.70,78.20Ls 2 1 The magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) has become σxx = σyy ;