Magneto-optic lanthanide materials

Lanthanide materials present a large variety of magneto-optical phenomena. The recent discovery of a new record 90° Kerr rotation in CeSb has renewed the interest in the fascinating magneto-optical properties of this class of materials. In this paper a classification of lanthanide materials containing no other magnetic element into four classes is proposed to account for the different magneto-optical behaviour. The classes and the prototypes are: 1. magnetic semiconductors: EuSe, TmSe_0.32Te_0.68, cleaved Tm_0.5Eu_0.5Se; 2. magnetic metals: TmSe_0.87Te_0.13, polished Tm_0.5Eu_0.5Se; 3. metals with induced moments: PrSb; 4. highly hybridized magnetic metals and semimetals: CeS, CeSb.