  Magnetic linear dichroism and birefringence in (Ga,Mn)As epitaxial layers is
investigated by measuring the polarization plane rotation of reflected linearly
polarized light when magnetization lies in the plane of the sample. We report
on the spectral dependence of the rotation and ellipticity angles in a broad
energy range of 0.12-2.7 eV for a series of optimized samples covering a wide
range on Mn-dopings and Curie temperatures and find a clear blue shift of the
dominant peak at energy exceeding the host material band gap. These results are
discussed in the general context of the GaAs host band structure and also
within the framework of the k.p and mean-field kinetic-exchange model of the
(Ga,Mn)As band structure. We find a semi-quantitative agreement between
experiment and theory and discuss the role of disorder-induced non-direct
transitions on magneto-optical properties of (Ga,Mn)As.
