title: Optical magnetoelectric effect in a submicron patterned magnet.
abstract: The optical magnetoelectric effect, which is a nonreciprocal directional dichroic response, has been demonstrated in a submicron patterned magnet by monitoring the diffracted visible or near-infrared light intensity. An artificial magnetic superstructure is composed of chevron shaped ">" islands made of the ferromagnetic permalloy Ni(80)Fe(20) with a pitch of 1 microm on silicon substrate, in which both space inversion and time reversal symmetry are broken simultaneously. On the basis of the light-polarization angle and magnetic field H dependence, and also comparing the results with the those of the submicron square patterns, we show that the optical magnetoelectric effect emerges as the finite change (approximately 10(-3) at room temperature in H of 500 Oe) of the diffracted intensity.
authors.affiliation: Spin Superstructure Project (SSS), ERATO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), c/o National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), AIST Tsukuba Central 4, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8562, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okimoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arima
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akoh
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tokura