Tuning the Magneto-Optical Response of Nanosize Ferromagnetic Ni Disks Using the Phase of Localized Plasmons

Nicolò Maccaferri, Andreas Berger, Stefano Bonetti, Valentina Bonanni, Mikko Kataja, Qi Hang Qin, Sebastiaan van Dijken, Zhaleh Pirzadeh, Alexandre Dmitriev, Josep Nogués, Johan Åkerman, and Paolo Vavassori

Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 167401 – Published 14 October 2013

Abstract

We explore the influence of the phase of localized plasmon resonances on the magneto-optical activity of nanoferromagnets. We demonstrate that these systems can be described as two orthogonal damped oscillators coupled by the spin-orbit interaction. We prove that only the spin-orbit induced transverse plasmon plays an active role on the magneto-optical properties by controlling the relative amplitude and phase lag between the two oscillators. Our theoretical predictions are fully confirmed by magneto-optical Kerr effect and optical extinction measurements in nanostructures of different size and shape.

Received 10 July 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.167401

Authors & Affiliations

Nicolò Maccaferri¹, Andreas Berger¹, Stefano Bonetti², Valentina Bonanni³, Mikko Kataja⁴, Qi Hang Qin⁴, Sebastiaan van Dijken⁴, Zhaleh Pirzadeh⁵, Alexandre Dmitriev⁵, Josep Nogués^6,7, Johan Åkerman⁸, and Paolo Vavassori^1,9,*

¹CIC nanoGUNE Consolider, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
²Department of Physics, Stanford University and Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford, California 94305-2004, USA
³CNR-ISTM and INSTM, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴NanoSpin, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University School of Science, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
⁵Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
⁶ICN2–Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
⁷ICREA–Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
⁸Materials Physics, School of Information and Communication Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Electrum 229,164 40 Kista, Sweden and Physics Department, University of Gothenburg, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
⁹IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain

^*p.vavassori@nanogune.eu

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

Issue

Vol. 111, Iss. 16 — 18 October 2013

Reuse & Permissions

Access Options

Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Physical Review Letters