An advanced wide-field Kerr microscopy approach to the vector imaging of magnetic domains is demonstrated. Utilizing the light from eight monochrome light emitting diodes, guided to the microscope by glass fibers, and being properly switched in synchronization with the camera exposure, domain images with orthogonal in-plane sensitivity are obtained simultaneously at real time. After calibrating the Kerr contrast under the same orthogonal sensitivity conditions, the magnetization vector field of complete magnetization cycles along the hysteresis loop can be calculated and plotted as a coded color or vector image. In the pulsed mode also parasitic, magnetic field-dependent Faraday rotations in the microscope optics are eliminated, thus increasing the accuracy of the measured magnetization angles to better than $5^{\circ }$. The method is applied to the investigation of the magnetization process in a patterned Permalloy film element. Furthermore it is shown that the effective magnetic anisotropy axes in a GaMnAs semiconducting film can be quantitatively measured by vectorial analysis of the domain structure.

• Received 27 September 2016
• Revised 29 November 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.014426