Magnetic Circular Dichroism of Oxide Films: Study of Electronic, Magnetic and Charge States

Semiconductor materials based on ZnO and RE 3+ MnO 3 oxides are considered as potential candidates for spintronics. This article presents the methodology and results of studying the effect of magnetic circular dichroism for Zn 1-x Co x O, Zn 1-x-y Co x Al y O and RE 1-x 3+ A x 2+ MnO 3 film structures in the visible radiation range. It has been shown that the magnetic circular dichroism behavior of the manganite films reflects not only the magnetic, but also the charge component of the material. This indicates the possibility of studying the magnetic and transport characteristics of the films using the magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy. Since the magnetic circular dichroism effect also directly probes the ground and excited electronic states of the film, it has been obtained data that update calculated parameters for describing the manganites band structure. In the case of the Zn 1-x Co x O and Zn 1-x-y Co x Al y O films, the magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy acts as a tool for detecting Co nanoparticles in the solid solution matrix of ZnO:Co and ZnO:(Co+Al).