The optical and magneto-optical properties of MnSbBi films

Abstract The optical and magneto-optical properties of Mn(Sb 1− x Bi x ) films were investigated for incident photons within the energy range from 1.3 to 4.0 eV. The diagonal and off-diagonal optical conductivities were determined from the results of spectroscopic ellipsometry and the polar Kerr effect measurements. A large Kerr rotation angle of about 0.57° was observed at photon energy ℏ ω ≈2.65 eV for the Mn 55 Sb 36 Bi 9 film with an average grain size of 30 nm. The changes of the exchange splitting and the spin–orbit interaction strength are responsible for the strong spectral dependence of the Kerr effect in Mn(Sb 1− x Bi x ) nanocrystalline films.