Effects of surface magnetism on optical second harmonic generation

The magneto-optical Kerr erect modifies the hyperpolarizability of the surface in the optical field, leading to a dependence of the second harmonic yield on the direction of magnetization relative to the light fields.

Abstract

We report on the first experiments showing the influence of surface magnetization on optical second harmonic generation in reflection at a Fe(110) surface. The magneto-optical Kerr effect modifies the hyperpolarizability of the surface in the optical field, leading to a dependence of the second harmonic yield on the direction of magnetization relative to the light fields. For the clean surface an effect of 25% was determined, which decays exponentially with surface contamination by the residual gas, thus demonstrating the high surface sensitivity of this technique.