We present a computational method for the ab initio study of magneto-optical quantities like the optical conductivity and the magneto-optical Kerr rotation based on density-functional theory. This method is tested here on the ferromagnetic metals Fe and Ni. The results for Fe agree very well with experimental data. The magneto-optical polar Kerr rotation is predicted accurately. For Ni the results are in fair agreement with experiment. In those points where deviations from experimental data are found, they can be traced back to the well-known fact that the local-density approximation is of moderate success in describing some of the Ni 3d bands.

• Received 25 July 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.45.10924