Effect of pressure on the magneto-optical properties of bcc and bct iron

We have studied the effect of pressure on the electronic structure of bcc and bct iron within the local spin density approximation (LSDA) for the electronic exchange and correlation. We report calculations of the magneto-optical properties of ferromagnetic iron in the bee and bet phases using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FPLAPW) method as implemented in the WIEN2K code. In both phases, we find two prominent minima in Kerr rotation. In bee phase, both the calculated Kerr minima shift towards higher energies with increase in pressure while in bet phase, the low energy minimum in Kerr rotation spectra similar to 2eV becomes less pronounced and the minimum at similar to 7eV moves towards higher energies on increasing pressure. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.