Dual Wavelength Magneto-Optical Imaging Of Magnetic Thin Films

A magneto-optical imaging approach for the simultaneous imaging of multiple magnetization components is demonstrated. The method is applied to investigate complex magnetization reversal processes in single crystal iron and patterned amorphous magnetostrictive ferromagnetic structures. The use of a splitted optical illumination and observation path allows for the direct extraction of different complementary magnetic information. Real-time in-plane vector magnetization imaging reveals complicated domain arrangement processes in magnetostrictive films due to locally varying stress induced magnetic anisotropy. Magnetic domain features concealed by standard domain imaging techniques are directly exposed. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.