In the last of this fall's honors presentations, Dilara Sen '25 will share her research investigating the Kerr effect of interesting magnetic materials.
The magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) occurs when linearly polarized incident light changes its polarization state of the reflected light due to its interaction with a magnetic sample. In general, the reflected light off of a sample, when subjected to a magnetic field, will alter its polarization from linear to elliptically-polarized light. This polarization change can be described and measured via the Kerr rotation and Kerr ellipticity parameters, which together provide insights on the magnetic behavior of the sample. Such measurements will be necessary to advance our knowledge on magnetic materials that are potential candidates to advance quantum computing and optoelectronic devices. I am proposing to build a spectroscopic MOKE experiment to investigate the Kerr effect of interesting magnetic materials. This will involve assembling several optical components, performing optical alignment, integrating electronics and writing the necessary LabVIEW codes to fully automate the MOKE system. Finally, the spectra of magnetic materials obtained by MOKE and ellipsometry will be analyzed to recover the dielectric tensor, which is needed to fully characterize the optical, electrical and magnetic properties of the material.
Join us on Friday, Sept. 27, for the last of this year's honors talks presented by physics students pursuing honors. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the presentation will begin in Hayes 211/213 at 12:10 p.m. Come and support your fellow physics classmates. We hope to see you there!