Speaker
Description
Magneto-optical effects, arising from the interaction of polarized light with exchange splitting and spin-orbit coupling, have long been powerful tools for investigating the electronic structure and magnetic domains of magnetically ordered materials. In this lecture, we will revisit the fundamental principles of magneto-optical phenomena and review their main types, including transmission effects (Faraday and Voigt effects) and reflection effects (polar, longitudinal, and transverse magneto-optical Kerr effects, MOKE).
We will compare these techniques, discuss their respective advantages and limitations, and examine the types of information that can be obtained from each of them. Finally, we will show why magneto-optics is currently experiencing a renaissance. Recent discoveries of unconventional magnetic orders, particularly in altermagnets and compensated ferrimagnets, have created new experimental challenges that often cannot be addressed by conventional techniques alone. We will discuss how modern magneto-optical methods are helping to overcome these challenges and are opening new avenues for the study of magnetic materials.