Faraday effect of bismuth iron garnet thin film prepared by mist CVD method

Abstract

Metastable bismuth iron garnet (BIG, an abbreviation of Bi3Fe5O12), one kind of garnet-type ferrites, is known to manifest very large Faraday rotation as well as low optical absorption in the visible to infrared region. We report on successful synthesis of thin film composed of single-phase BIG epitaxially grown on single-crystalline gadolinium gallium garnet (Gd3Ga5O12, GGG) substrate by using mist chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, which is an emerging technique for preparation of thin films. The crystal structure, surface morphology, and magnetic, optical and magneto-optical properties of the resultant thin films have been explored. The BIG thin film has a relatively flat surface free from roughness compared to those prepared by other vapor deposition methods. Saturation magnetization is about 1620 G at room temperature, which is close to that expected from the ideal magnetic structure of BIG. The maximum value of Faraday rotation angle reaches 54.3 deg/µm at a wavelength of 424 nm. This value is rather large when compared with those reported for BIG thin films prepared by other techniques. The wavelength dependence of Faraday rotation angle is analyzed well in terms of the crystal electric field (CEF) level schema. Our result suggests that the mist CVD method is a simple and effective technique to synthesize BIG thin film with excellent magneto-optical properties.