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A. Vernes, P. Weinberger:
"Magneto-optical Kerr effect from layered systems when using elliptically polarized incident light";
Physical Review B, 70 (2004), 134411-1 - 134411-11.

(Received 29 January 2004; revised manuscript received 25 May 2004; published 15 October 2004)
Exploiting the dependence of Kerr spectra on the polarization state of incident light, it is shown that Kerr
angles can be optimized by using elliptically polarized incident light. The proposed scheme is applied to fcc
Ni(100) and fcc Co/Pt3/Co/Pts100d. By making use of the complex optical conductivity tensor (calculated by
means of the spin-polarized relativistic screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method) and an appropriate 232
matrix formalism (to include all reflections and interferences) it is found, that the Kerr angle can be increased
substantially even for very small deviations from perfect normal incidence or polar geometry. This increase
pertains over the entire visible range of photon energies when using almost circularly polarized incident light.
In the case of Ni(100) it is shown that depending on the photon energy even in using arbitrary linearly
polarized incident light of azimuth different than ±45°, the Kerr angles can be improved by 5-60 %.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.70.134411 PACS number(s): 78.20.Bh, 78.20.Ci, 78.20.Ls, 78.67.Pt

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