Abstract

The chapter surveys the results on the investigation of the nonlinear magneto-optical properties of magnetophotonic crystals (MPC) and microcavities. The effects of the second- and third-harmonics generation as well as nonlinear magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr effects are reviewed. The main magnetic ma- terial used in the MPC structures, which determines the magneto-optical activity of the magnetophotonic structures, is yttrium–iron garnet (YIG), which appears as a continuous layer in 1D MPC, microcavity layer in magnetophotonic microcavities or YIG nanoparticles incorporated in artificial opal structure. We demonstrate that many-fold amplification of the nonlinear magneto-optical effects is attained within the spectral edge of the photonic band gap and within the microcavity mode as compared to linear magneto-optical analogs. Strong light localization as well as the realization of the phase matching conditions are discussed as possible mechanisms of the observed enhancement of the nonlinear magneto-optical effects.