Transient spectral dependence of photoinduced magneto-optical Faraday effect in CdTe quantum dots AIP Advances 2, 012116 (2012); 10.1063/1.3679403Magneto-optical spectra of excitons and Landau subbands in strained CdTe epitaxial films under high magnetic fields Various kinds of magneto-optical properties are investigated in rare earth orthochromites. From an analysis of Cr 3ϩ exciton absorption in RCrO 3 ͑RϭTb, Dy, and Ho͒, it is unferred that these compounds exhibit an anomalous spin-reorientation in a magnetic field along the b axis, where the weak ferromagnetic moment of the Cr 3ϩ spins rotates in the ac plane perpendicular to the b axis. In these compounds, when the R 3ϩ spin configuration is disordered, an anomalous satellite band appears on the lower-energy side of the Cr 3ϩ exciton absorption, which is associated with the breakdown of the kϭ0 selection rule due to the disorder of the R 3ϩ spin configuration. In YbCrO 3 , various kinds of cooperative excitations, such as a Cr 3ϩ exciton coupled with an Yb 3ϩ magnon and a Cr 3ϩ ϪYb 3ϩ exciton molecule, which are induced by the antisymmetric exchange interaction between the Cr 3ϩ and Yb 3ϩ spins, appear in the visible region. The propagation of these cooperative excitations depends strongly on the spin structure and the external magnetic field. In ErCrO 3 , a photo-induced spin-reorientation takes place within 50 s after the photo-irradiation corresponding to the 4 A 2g → 2 E g transition of Cr 3ϩ , and it returns to the initial spin configuration in about 400 ms. This phenomenon is detected in the time-resolved Er 3ϩ absorption spectra corresponding to the 4 I 15/2 → 4 I 9/2 transition. Finally, we briefly review the recent frontier research on applications developed mainly in Japan.