Magneto-optical enhancement through gyrotropic gratings

Diffracted magneto-optical (MO) effects are numerically investigated for one-dimensional lossy gyrotropic gratings in the zeroth and the first orders for the polar magnetization by utilizing the rigorous coupled-wave approach implemented as an Airy-like internal-reflection series. The simulated Kerr spectra agree well with the experimental ones. The dependence of the MO Kerr enhancement on the grating depth in the first-order diffraction, compared with that in the zeroth one, is illustrated, and the diffracted MO Faraday effect is theoretically investigated as well. Such a MO enhancement through the gyrotropic gratings is superior to the conventional MO devices and magneto-photonic crystals. The potential applications are also suggested.