Laser spectroscopy of materials for spintronics

In these diploma thesis magnetically ordered materials are studied with the prospect of their application in spintronics. Specifically, we investigated metallic alloy FeRh, which undergoes a magnetic phase transition from antife- romagnetic phase to feromagnetic one around 100◦ C. This phenomenon can be readily used in memory devices. Laser spectroscopy is used as a nondestructive method without need of any electrical contacts. Magnetic properties of FeRh are studied by magnetooptical effects including quadratic magnetic linear dichroism. The measured polarization rotations are of the order of miliradians, therefore, the detection is realized by an optical bridge. At first, we concentrated on discrimina- ting of various magnetooptical effects from each other. The second part is focused on the phase transition induced by different means. Firstly, by heating the whole sample, secondly by illuminating the sample locally by continuous laser