Room-temperature magnetic and magneto-optical properties of Sr2FeMoO6 thinfilms

Epitaxial thin films of a half-metallic ferromagnet Sr2FeMoO6 have been gro wn on (001) SrTiO3, and MgO substrates by magnetron sputtering in Ar + H-2 mixture gas. Their structural, magnetic, magneto-optical and transport prop erties at room temperature were investigated and compared. Large difference has been observed especially in the magnetic and magneto-optical propertie s between thin films on SrTiO3 and MgO. The films on SrTiO3 exhibited stron ger out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy and larger complex polar Kerr effect w ith a rotation theta (k) up to -0.32 degrees at 1.6 eV and RT. The observed difference in the properties of the films on the two substrates can be int erpreted in terms of the structural disorder.