Oscillatory behaviour of magnetic and magneto-optical properties in Fe-Pt thin-film structures

Results of investigations into the influence of Pt On the magnetic and mago neto-optical properties of Fe-Pt-Fe. trilayers and the sandwich of wed-e-sh aped Fe and Pt layers are presented. The oscillatory behavior of the satura tion field, H-S, of the trilayers with changing the Pt-layer thickness, t(p t) was revealed. That was explained by the exchange coupling between the fe rromagnetic layers through the nonmagnetic spacer. For the first time, osci llations of the transverse Kerr effect (TKE) with changing Pt-wedge thickne ss were discovered. The period of these oscillations was found to depend on the Fe-layer thickness and the photon energy of the incident light. TKE sp ectra of the examined samples were discovered to modify very strongly with increasing t(pt). The peculiarities of the magneto-optical properties of th e Fe-Pt thin-film structures were explained by the concept of the spin-pola rized quantum well states in the Pt-layer. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.