Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) thin
films are
highly needed in microwave devices, but the low saturation magnetization
and low dielectric constant greatly limit the application of YIG thin
films. It was reported that the ion substitution, for example, Pr3+, could increase the dielectric constant of Y3‑x
Pr
x
Fe5O12 (YPr
x
IG). Unfortunately, the
dielectric loss would also be significantly increased. In this work,
[YPr0.20IG/YPr0.15IG/YPr0.10IG]
N
multilayer films were fabricated via the
chemical solution deposition method, by designing a periodic structure
with the [YPr0.20IG/YPr0.15IG/YPr0.10IG] composition gradient stack. In comparison to the average composition
of YPr0.15IG, high saturation magnetization, high dielectric
constant, and low loss were successfully simultaneously achieved in
the multilayer structure. The N = 6 film exhibited
a higher saturation magnetization of 252.8 emu/cm3 than
the value (213.1) of the YPr0.15IG (average composition)
film. The dielectric constant of the N = 6 film reached
25.6 in contrast to the value of 18.3 for the YPr0.15IG
film at 12.4 GHz, which was the contribution of the rapid flip of
the electric dipole of a single-unit dielectric material and the accumulation
of interface charge. Furthermore, the dielectric loss of the film
with N = 6 decreased to 0.0036 compared with the
value (0.0102) of the average composition film. This work demonstrated
a strategy of designing a periodic structure with a composition gradient
stack unit to realize a good comprehensive dielectric property through
taking advantage of the multiple effects of “coherent growth,
component matching, and interface accumulation”.