Optical and magneto-optical behavior of Cerium Yttrium Iron Garnet thin films at wavelengths of 200–1770 nm

Abstract

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.

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“…The angular-dependent FMR measurements confirm this assumption as they yield an in-plane twofold symmetry for the anisotropy as well, hinting at a dominating in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. From the crystalline surface symmetry, one would expect a sixfold anisotropy, which is observed in VSM measurements of thinner samples [54]. The origin of the uniaxial anisotropy can be explained by the influence of the substrate surface as is evident from further XRD measurements, shown in the Supplemental Material [43].…”

Si-integrated ultrathin films of phase-pure Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) via novel two-step rapid thermal anneal

“…In addition, proximity-based spin-pumping effects diminish inversely with the thickness of the YIG proximity layer so ultrathin YIG is desired but difficult to integrate with Si [18]. Fortunately, the photonics community has been improving the growth of ultrathin YIG onto semiconductor-compatible substrates for on-chip optical isolators [15,[19][20][21][22][23].…”

Enhancement in Curie Temperature of Yttrium Iron Garnet by Doping with Neodymium

“…As observed, we obtained 17.5 Oe of coercivity for the non-doped sample, which is slightly lower than samples synthesized by other methods [11,12,13,14]. This result can be due to the lower crystallite size achieved by high-energy ball milling and the formation of a complete solid solution of yttrium iron garnet.…”

“…In order to understand and adjust almost any intrinsic parameter of a garnet, such as specific magnetization and coercivity, several works have substituted trivalent yttrium cations by different rare earth elements: Ce 3+ , Dy 3+ , Gd 3+ , Sm 3+ , La 3+ , including Nd 3+ and Pr 3+ [12,13,14]. These materials were achieved by using different synthesis methods, such as solid-state reaction, sol–gel, micro emulsion, etc.…”