Enhanced magneto-optic Kerr rotation in epitaxial PtFe(001) and PtCo(001) thin films

Abstract
We observe changes in the magneto‐optic Kerr rotations of Pt‐Fe and Pt‐Co alloys associated with the formation of the uniaxial CuAu(I) crystal structure. In particular, we report the observation of up to 60% enhancement at 2.0 eV in the magneto‐optic Kerr rotation for the ordered, epitaxial PtFe intermetallicalloy over that of the random equiatomic face‐centered‐cubic alloy. This enhancement is wavelength dependent, with a peak in the visible at 2.0 eV. A similar enhancement, but of smaller magnitude, is observed for unoriented CuAu(I) PtFe0.5Co0.5.