Light-Induced Modification of the Magneto-Optical Hysteresis in an Epitaxial Cation-Substituted Iron Garnet Film

Abstract

Hysteresis loops in epitaxial rare-earth iron garnet (111) films at room temperature have been recorded using the magneto-optical Faraday effect. The magnetic field is applied in the film plane having the easy-plane magnetic anisotropy in combination with the cubic anisotropy, which allows out-of-plane magnetization. Suppression of the normal component of the magnetization due to with the effect of the magnetic anisotropy induced by 635-nm optical pump has been experimentally detected. It has been found that the effect depends on the direction of the wave vector of pump light in the crystal. This effect has been analyzed within the mechanism of the photoinduced excitation of hole polarons.