An investigation on the magneto-optical enhancement in Ni-substituted barium ferrites

The calculation of the contribution of the intraionic electric-dipole transitions between the 3d(8) and 3d(7) 4p configurations of Ni2+ ions doped in barium ferrites to the Faraday effect is presented. It is shown that such transition is an important origin of the Ni contribution to the Faraday effect in the Ni-substituted barium ferrite. The energy difference between the mean energies of the 3d(8) and 3d(7) 4p configurations is large. So the 496-nm wavelength (photon energy 2.5 eV) is far from the resonance frequencies. However, since the molecular field upon the Ni2+ ions is very large, the Faraday rotation at 496 nm produced by such transition is still large. Other possible origins are discussed briefly. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.