Investigation of magneto-optical Kerr signal enhancement in amorphous magnetic ribbons

¹ Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Kashan, 8731751167 Kashan, Iran
² Laser and Plasma Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, 1983963113 Tehran, Iran

^a e-mail: m.moradi@kashanu.ac.ir

Received: 27 July 2012
Revised: 26 November 2012
Accepted: 7 January 2013
Published online: 31 January 2013

Abstract

We report the magneto-optical Kerr signal enhancement due to the capping effect of SnO₂ on the Co₆₇Fe₄B_14.5Si_14.5 amorphous ribbons. The amorphous melt spun ribbons are mounted on glass substrate and capped by SnO₂ with different thicknesses by using electron-beam evaporation technique. The magnetic behavior of the ribbons is investigated by the magneto-optical Kerr effect. As the SnO₂ layer thickness increases up to about 70 nm, the Kerr signal increases more than two times with respect to that for uncovered ribbon. The results were analyzed using a formalism based on a 4 × 4 matrix method. A good agreement of the experimental results with the theoretical results is observed.