Magneto-optical cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Ce:YIG) thin films display Faraday and Kerr rotation (rotation of light polarisation upon transmission and reflection, respectively) as well as a nonreciprocal phase shift due to their non-zero off-diagonal permittivity tensor elements, and also possess low optical absorption in the near-infrared. These properties make Ce:YIG useful in providing nonreciprocal light propagation in integrated photonic circuits, which is essential for accomplishing energy-efficient photonic computation and data transport architectures. In this study, 80 nm-thick Ce:YIG films were grown on Gadolinium Gallium Garnet substrates with (100), (110) and (111) orientations using pulsed laser deposition. The films had bulk-like structural and magnetic quality. Faraday and Kerr spectroscopies along with spectroscopic ellipsometry were used to deduce the complete permittivity tensor of the films in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared spectral region, and the magneto-optical figure of merit as a function of wavelength was determined. The samples showed the highest IR Faraday rotation reported for thin films of Ce:YIG, which indicates the importance of this material in development of nonreciprocal photonic devices.

In this work, we present a systematic study of optical and magneto-optical properties of Y 3-x Bi x Fe 5 O 12 thin films with various Bi concentrations (x = 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3) prepared by Metal Organic Decomposition on Gd 3 Ga 5 O 12 (100) substrates. We used magneto-optical spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Spectral dependence of complex refraction indexes obtained from ellipsometric measurements revealed increasing optical absorption with increasing Bi concentrations. Faraday and Kerr magneto-optical spectra measured in the photon energy range from 1.5 to 5.5 eV clearly demonstrated that the increasing Bi concentration enhances the spin-orbit coupling and influences the magnetooptical effect. Using the magneto-optical and ellipsometric experimental data we deduced a spectral dependence of complete permittivity tensor in a wide spectral range. Comparison of obtained results with the results reported on Liquid Phase Epitaxy bulk-like garnets with small Bi concentrations showed agreement and confirmed a high optical and magneto-optical quality of investigated films.

No abstract

The role of emotional creativity in practicing creative leisure activities and in the preference of college majors remains unknown. The present study aims to explore how emotional creativity measured by the Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI; Averill, 1999) is interrelated with the real-life involvement in different types of specific creative leisure activities and with four categories of college majors. Data were collected from 251 university students, university graduates and young adults (156 women and 95 men). Art students and graduates scored significantly higher on the ECI than other majors. Humanities scored significantly higher than technical/economic majors. Five creative leisure activities were significantly correlated with the ECI, specifically, writing, painting, composing music, performing drama, and do-it-yourself home improvement. Overall creative capacities are related to various emotional variables, especially to stable emotional characteristics. The significance of stable emotional characteristics is recognizable in experimental creative tasks (Gutbezahl & Averill, 1996), divergent thinking tasks (Zenasni & Lubart, 2008) as well as in creative artistic performance (Agular-Vafaie & Runco, 2008). Ma (2009) classified three main areas of general creativity in his extensive meta-analysis: (a) creativity with less evaluation, including nonverbal and verbal; (b) creativity in problem solving, with more evaluation; and (c) emotional creativity. Emotional creativity (EC) is a pattern of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience (Ivcevic, Brackett, & Mayer, 2007). It involves the particularly effective application of an already existing emotion or, at a more complex level, the modification of a standard emotion to better meet the needs of the individual or group (Averill, 1999). Divergence from the ordinary emotional experience is a key feature of EC, because EC involves the ability to diverge from the common and generate novel emotional reactions (Ivcevic, Brackett, & Mayer, 2007). The theoretical conceptualization of EC within other related creativity constructs was previously provided by Gutbezahl and Averill (1996). The most common measurement of EC is a self-report questionnaire, the Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI; Averill, 1999) developed by James R. Averill.