A new Faraday rotator using a thick Gd:YIG film grown by liquid-phase epitaxy and its applications to an optical isolator and optical switch

Abstract

A new Faraday rotator using a thick garnet film grown by liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) has been proposed and film growth technology for the rotator has been investigated. The new Faraday rotator had good features of very low cost and small size, due to high productivity of the LPE-grown film and low magnetic saturation field, respectively. By using the new Faraday rotator, an optical isolator and magnetooptic switch for single-mode fiber systems have been developed. The optical isolator featured 0.8-dB insertion loss and 25-dB isolation at 1.3-μm wavelength. The magneto-optic 1 × 2 switch was independent of light polarization and featured 1.3-1.7-dB insertion loss, -25-dB crosstalk, and 30-μs switching time at 1.3-μm wavelength. Minimum switching voltage was ±5 V. Magneto-optic devices using the new Faraday rotator is practical for use in 1.2-1.7-\mu m wavelength fiber-optic systems, because of good optical properties, compactness, and low cost.