A New Magnetooptical Effect Discovered on Magnetic Multilayers: The Magnetorefractive Effect

We show theoretically that the change in the magnetization structure of magnetic metallic multilayers under the application of a magnetic field shall be generally associated with a significant change of the refractive index. This constitutes a new magnetooptical effect: the magnetorefractive effect. Optical transmission measurements under an applied magnetic field through [Ni80Fe20/Cu/Co/Cu] multilayers, in the light wavelength region between 2 μm and 20 μm, clearly demonstrate the existence of the predicted effect and are found in reasonnable agreement with the theoretical calculations.