FUNDAMENTAL OPTICAL AND MAGNETOOPTICAL CONSTANTS OF CO PT AND CONI/PTMULTILAYERED FILMS/

A study has been made of the optical and magneto-optical properties of several Co/Pt and CoNi/Pt multilayered films that were fabricated by magnetron sputter deposition. Spectroscopic rotating analyzer ellipsom etry and Kerr polarimetry were carried out to determine the fundamenta l optical and magneto-optical constants over the spectral range 320-86 0 nm. The constants determined were the complex refractive index and t he first-order magneto-optic Voigt parameter. A total of seven films w ere examined and excellent reproducibility was observed in the measure d material constants. These have been used to discuss the spectral dep endence of the figure-of-merit, for each material, associated with the detection of the polar Kerr effect.