Deformed MO loops: appearance of orthogonal components of magnetization

The widely used magnetooptical (MO) loop tracer which measures polarization rotation in terms of light-power levels is not adequate for observing individual magnetization components. Loop tracing with the transverse Kerr effect yielding MO loops is able to determine such single components. We present a differential system for observing the transverse Kerr effect which we have constructed for stable measurements of single magnetization components. Measurements were performed on a soft magnetic thin film.