Magneto-optical Kerr effect
17/05/2016, Pavel Procházka
We present a new high-resolution Kerr magnetometer for quantitative measurement of all three components of magnetization vector.
In magnetism the means to characterize the local magnetization in magnetic samples are scarce. One of the possible techniques is to use so called Kerr effect which can be easily utilized into the microscopic setup. We present an apparatus capable of non-destructive and quantitative measurement of local vector of magnetization with resolution better than 600 nm. The superior performance of our apparatus allowed us to visualize domain walls in YIG (yttrium-iron garnet) film measured in scanning vectorial Kerr microscopy mode, which showed a twisting of the domain wall along a up/down domain boundary and a local magnetization switching in a magnetic disk measured in scanning vectorial Kerr magnetometry mode. This measurement is done in a pump-probe manner and revealed magnetization to form so called vortex state with some exotic nucleation mechanisms (Vaňatka, et. al., APL, to be published).