Physical Properties and Behaviour of Highly Bi-Substituted Magneto-Optic Garnets for Applications in Integrated Optics and Photonics

Abstract

Rare-earth and Bi-substituted iron garnet thin film materials exhibit strong potential for application in various fields of science and frontier optical technologies. Bi-substituted iron garnets possess extraordinary optical and MO properties and are still considered as the best MO functional materials for various emerging integrated optics and photonics applications. However, these MO garnet materials are rarely seen in practical photonics use due to their high optical losses in the visible spectral region. In this paper, we report on the physical properties and magneto-optic behaviour of high-performance RF sputtered highly bismuth-substituted iron garnet and garnet-oxide nanocomposite films of generic composition type (Bi, Dy/Lu)3(Fe, Ga/Al)5O12. Our newly synthesized garnet materials form high-quality nanocrystalline thin film layers which demonstrate excellent optical and MO properties suitable for a wide range of applications in integrated optics and photonics.

Advanced Materials and Device Architectures for Magnetooptical Spatial Light Modulators

“…Among numerous efforts for achieving larger rotation angles in nonreciprocal devices, doping iron garnets with Bi [136], [137], [138], [139] ,Ce [140], [141], [142], [143] , or Nd [144] has become a standard method. Doped iron garnets have much higher figures of merit with respect to undoped garnet and can thus be used as typical MO components of these devices.…”