Highly sensitive magneto-optic transverse Kerr effect measurement system for the detection of perpendicular anisotropy and magnetic phases in thin films

Transverse biased initial susceptibility (TBIS) measurements were made using a magneto-optical Kerr effect system on samples that exhibited an in-plane and a perpendicular anisotropy. A change in the slope of both the inverse transverse susceptibility and the hysteresis loop is observed at a certain value of the applied in-plane field H-s. At values of the applied field higher than H-s the magnetization lies in the plane of the film; at values lower than H-s an out-of-plane component appears. By performing TBIS measurements we can also detect different micromagnetic phases magnetically uncoupled with different values of the anisotropy field. The occurrence of a downwards curvature in the inverse susceptibility when the de held is applied along the hard axis together with the multiple minima when the de field is applied along the easy axis can be explained by the existence of weakly coupled micromagnetic phases. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.