Material Selective Sensitivity of Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect in NiFe/Au/Co/Au Periodic Multilayers

Material selective sensitivity of a magneto-optical polar Kerr effect to magnetizations of films from different materials in a multilayer system is presented. The method is supported by rigorous modeling of magneto-optic response from the multilayer system and by experimental demonstration on the periodic cobalt-permalloy multilayers [Ni₈₀Fe₂₀(2 nm)/Au(2 nm)/Co(0.4, 0.8, and 1.2 nm)/Au(2 nm)]₁₀ .