Tailoring surfaces of one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals: Optical Tamm state and Faraday rotation

Abstract

We demonstrate that microscale tailoring of surfaces of magnetophotonic crystals provides an approach to engineer responses of known materials. In particular, we study states that are spatially localized at the interface between magnetophotonic and photonic crystals. Such states are an optical analog of the Tamm states long known in solid-state physics. The optical Tamm states are spectrally located inside band gaps and are associated with a sharp transmission peak in spectra of the system. Substantial enhancement of the Faraday rotation for the wavelength of the optical Tamm state is experimentally observed and attributed to strong light coupling to magnetic constituents of the magnetophotonic crystal. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions.