Development of MOKE-setup for measurements of magnetic properties of thin films

Abstract

Nano-structured magnetic materials have attacted intense research interest as they exhibit unusual physical properties and have potential technological application, such as in electronic devices, ultrahigh-density recording media, biosensors, and nanocatalysis. We have successfully synthesized nano-structured magnetic materials using pulsed laser deposition as well as plasma focus devices. These investigations are mainly focused on the synthesis, morphological and structural properties rather than magnetic properties as it was difficult to measure their magnetic properties. There are many ways to measure magnetic properties, such as SQUID, VSM, MOKE, etc. VSM os the most widely used equipment, but it is not sensitive enough for metallic films in ultra-thin limit. Although SQUID is very powerful to characterize magnetic materials but its maintenance and operational costs are very high. Hence, magneto-optical Kerr affect (MOKE) magnetometer, with systematically simplicity and high sensitivity, is designed and setup to investigate magnetic properties of metallic films in ultra-thin limit.