Fabrication of BixY3-xFe5O12 thin films by thermal decomposition of metal oleates

Abstract

Metal organic decomposition (MOD) for the metal oxides thin films fabrication has been used in various studies over the past 30 years. MOD is a simple and inexpensive method for manufacturing optical grade polycrystalline thin films, including bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet. We present a variant of the previously described MOD method and discuss a chemical route for fabricating thin porous oxide films with a thicknesses of more than 100 nm, which non-epitaxially crystallized on fused silica substrates into BixY3-xFe5O12 layers (x = 0.5 and 1.5). Studies of the structural and magneto-optical properties of the layers show that the garnet layers crystallized under optimal conditions are characterized by high values of the specific Faraday rotation. Importantly, crystallization can be done locally by laser irradiation, and wet etching makes possible to remove non-crystallized areas, thus extending microfabrication capabilities.