Optical magnetoelectric effect in a submicron patterned magnet

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Feb 25;94(7):077205. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.077205. Epub 2005 Feb 23.

Abstract

The optical magnetoelectric effect, which is a nonreciprocal directional dichroic response, has been demonstrated in a submicron patterned magnet by monitoring the diffracted visible or near-infrared light intensity. An artificial magnetic superstructure is composed of chevron shaped ">" islands made of the ferromagnetic permalloy Ni(80)Fe(20) with a pitch of 1 microm on silicon substrate, in which both space inversion and time reversal symmetry are broken simultaneously. On the basis of the light-polarization angle and magnetic field H dependence, and also comparing the results with the those of the submicron square patterns, we show that the optical magnetoelectric effect emerges as the finite change (approximately 10(-3) at room temperature in H of 500 Oe) of the diffracted intensity.