Comparative study of optical and magneto‐optical properties of normal, disordered, and inverse spinel‐type oxides

, , , , and thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition at high and low temperatures resulting in crystalline single-phase normal, inverse, as well as disordered spinel oxide thin films with smooth surface morphology. The dielectric function, determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry in a wide spectral range from 0.5 to 8.5 eV, is compared with the magneto-optical response of the dielectric tensor, investigated by magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy in the spectral range from 1.7 to 5.5 eV with an applied magnetic field of 1.7 T. Crystal field, inter-valence, and inter-sublattice charge transfer transitions, and transitions from to metal cation 3d or 4s bands are identified in both the principal diagonal elements and the magneto-optically active off-diagonal elements of the dielectric tensor. Depending on the degree of cation disorder, resulting in local symmetry distortion, the magneto-optical response is found to be strongest for high crystal quality inverse spinels and for disordered normal spinel structure, contrary to the first principle studies of and . The results presented provide a basis for deeper understanding of light–matter interaction in this material system that is of vital importance for device-related phenomena and engineering.