Borate glasses containing a large amount of Tb 3+ ions have been prepared by containerless processing. The content of Tb2O3 reached 60 mol%. The glass bearing the highest content of Tb 3+ ions showed a large Faraday effect; the Verdet constant was 234 rad/T m. Annealing of the glasses in H2/N2 atmosphere resulted in a low optical absorption coefficient, leading to an extremely large magneto-optical figure of merit that was ~1.7 times higher than that of Tb3Ga5O12 single crystal.

Polycrystalline and epitaxial thin films composed of a single phase of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) have been synthesized on silica glass and singlecrystalline gadolinium gallium garnet substrates, respectively, by the mist chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The element Y can be found in the deposited thin films only when an aprotic polar solvent such as acetone is employed for the preparation of the precursor solutions. The crystal structure, magnetic properties, and magneto-optical properties of the thin films are explored. The maximum Faraday rotation angle observed in the present epitaxial YIG thin film is 3.66°/µm at 441 nm, as far as we know, which is higher than those reported for YIG films prepared by other methods, suggesting that the mist CVD method is effective for obtaining epitaxial thin films of multiple oxides.

Metastable bismuth iron garnet (BIG, an abbreviation of Bi 3 Fe 5 O 12), one kind of garnet-type ferrites, is known to manifest very large Faraday rotation as well as low optical absorption in the visible to infrared region. We report on successful synthesis of thin film composed of single-phase BIG epitaxially grown on single-crystalline gadolinium gallium garnet (Gd 3 Ga 5 O 12 , GGG) substrate by using mist chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, which is an emerging technique for preparation of thin films. The crystal structure, surface morphology, and magnetic, optical and magneto-optical properties of the resultant thin films have been explored. The BIG thin film has a relatively flat surface free from roughness compared to those prepared by other vapor deposition methods. Saturation magnetization is about 1620 G at room temperature, which is close to that expected from the ideal magnetic structure of BIG. The maximum value of Faraday rotation angle reaches 54.3 deg/µm at a wavelength of 424 nm. This value is rather large when compared with those reported for BIG thin films prepared by other techniques. The wavelength dependence of Faraday rotation angle is analyzed well in terms of the crystal electric field (CEF) level schema. Our result suggests that the mist CVD method is a simple and effective technique to synthesize BIG thin film with excellent magneto-optical properties.

We have prepared a three-dimensional magnetophotonic crystal and observed modulated Faraday rotation around its photonic band gap. The magnetophotonic crystal was prepared by the self-assembly of highly monodispersed silica spheres, which were heavily impregnated with maghemite (c À Fe 2 O 3 ) nanoparticles. The slab sample with a thickness of 10 lm shows a clear photonic band gap centered at k ¼ 620 nm in optical transmittance. Faraday rotation is notably modified inside the photonic band gap. V