Magneto-Optical Effects

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Abstract
The general theory of magneto-optical effects is reviewed and it is shown that one can describe these phenomena in terms of a macroscopic dielectric tensor by setting μ=1. This is true even when the microscopic origins of the dielectric constant are magnetic-dipole transitions. For the case of electric-dipole transitions, the dispersive magneto-optical effects (i.e., Faraday or Voigt effects) can be interpreted in terms of an effective Hamiltonian which is related to the macroscopic dielectric tensor in a very simple manner. The form of this effective Hamiltonian follows from symmetry considerations. From the measurements of the magneto-optical effects, one determines the constants of the effective Hamiltonian and from these one can predict the cross section for Raman scattering of light by spin excitations.

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