Vector-magneto-optical generalized ellipsometry

We present the setup of a variable-angle vector-magneto-optical generalized ellipsometer (VMOGE) in the spectral range from 300 to 1100 nm using an octupole magnet, and demonstrate VMOGE measurements of the upper 3 × 4 submatrix of the Mueller matrix in a magnetic field of arbitrary orientation and magnitude up to 0.4 T at room temperature. New “field orbit” measurements can be performed without physically moving the sample, which is useful to study magnetic multilayer or nanostructure samples. A 4 × 4 matrix formalism is employed to model the experimental VMOGE data. Searching the best match model between experimental and calculated VMOGE data, the magneto-optical dielectric tensor ε^MO of each layer in a multilayer sample system can be determined. In this work, we assume that the nonsymmetric terms of ε^MO are induced by an external magnetic field and depend linearly on the sample magnetization. Comparison with vector magnetometer measurements can provide the anisotropic magneto-optical coupling constants Q_x , Q_y, Q_z .