Faraday and Kerr Effects in Ferromagnets

Abstract

Faraday and Kerr effects are the most inportant magneto-optical effects for optical recording and optical communication. Since the discovery of anomalously large Faraday rotation due to diamagnetic bismuth ions in ferrimagnetic garnets, both fundamental and applied research into magneto-optical effects have been extensively developed. In this chapter, the origin of Faraday and Kerr effects of the ferromagnet, CrBr_3, is described in terms of ligand field theory. Then, the anomalously large Faraday rotation in ferrimagnetic garnets is theoretically discussed.