Magneto‐Optical Bi‐Substituted Yttrium and Terbium Iron Garnets for On‐Chip Crystallization via Microheaters

Abstract

Ferrimagnetic iron garnets enable magnetic and magneto‐optical functionality in silicon photonics and electronics. However, garnets require high‐temperature processing for crystallization which can degrade other devices on the wafer. Here bismuth‐substituted yttrium and terbium iron garnet (Bi‐YIG and Bi‐TbIG) films are demonstrated with good magneto‐optical performance and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) crystallized by a microheater built on a Si chip or by rapid thermal annealing. The Bi‐TbIG film crystallizes on Si at 873 K without a seed layer and exhibits good magneto‐optical properties with Faraday rotation (FR) of −1700 deg cm−1. The Bi‐YIG film also crystallizes on Si and fused SiO2 at 873 K without a seed layer. Rapidly cooled films exhibit PMA due to the tensile stress caused by the thermal expansion mismatch with the substrates, increasing the magnetoelastic anisotropy by 4 kJ m−3 versus slow‐cooled films. Annealing in the air for 15 s using the microheater yields fully crystallized Bi‐TbIG on the Si chip.