Giant transversal Kerr effect in magneto-plasmonic heterostructures: The scattering-matrix method

Abstract

The magneto-optical intensity effect (transversal Kerr effect) in a metal-dielectric periodic heterostructure that consists of a metallic grating formed by subwavelength slits and a dielectric substrate magnetized along the slits is shown to be resonantly enhanced by several tens of times in the excitation region of structure eigenmodes—surface plasmon polaritons and Fabry-Perot modes. The Fourier modal and scattering-matrix methods adapted to the case of gyrotropic periodic media have been used. The resonant enhancement of the intensity effect is attributable to the phenomenon of magneto-optical nonreciprocity.