Analysis of magneto-optical spectra in compositionally-modulated multilayered films.

This paper presents an interpretation and analysis of experimentally obtained magneto-optical spectra in compositionally-modulated multilayered films consisting of transition metal and noble metal such as Fe/Cu. Two possible mechanisms are discussed: (1) The noble metal atoms at the interface are magnetically polarized by the transition metals to make a contribution to the magneto-optical spectrum and (2) Optical constants of the film with multilayered structure become different from those of the single-layered film, by which the Kerr rotation spectrum is effectively altered by the change in optical constants. It is clarified by this work that model (1) does not hold in our case and that by using model (2) most of the experimental results can be explained.