Magneto-optical properties of the Ca:(yttrium iron garnet) epitaxial-layer–substrate interface on gadolinium gallium garnet

Abstract

Calcium oxide is a growth rate inhibitor of the liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) of garnet layers. Calcium oxide additions to a melt for the growth of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) will reduce the epitaxial growth rate from its typical value of 1.0 to 0.1 μm/min [W. H. De Roode and J. M. Robertson, J. Cryst. Growth 63, 105 (1983)], allowing precise thickness control for the fabrication of optical waveguides and magnetic heterostructures. LPE growth of YIG from calcium-free melts produces a 0.1-0.5 μm interface layer between the YIG layer and the gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrate. This interface is caused by a transient crystal growth that occurs before equilibrium epitaxy, and it consists of a nonstoichiometric layer composition that includes flux and impurity components. Calcium oxide addition would be especially useful if it reduced the thickness of the interface layer in proportion to its inhibition of growth rate. This, however, is not the case. A series of Ca:YIG layers was grown by LPE on GGG substrates in the thickness range 0.05–10 μm. Faraday rotation spectroscopy in the wavelength range 475–575 nm distinguished the layer, interface, and substrate contributions to the optical rotation and revealed the presence of a 0.25-μm-thick interface layer with properties characteristic of Pb-substituted YIG. Double-crystal x-ray diffraction confirmed the existence of the interface by the angular broadening of the layer diffraction and a shifting to lattice constants intermediate between YIG and GGG as the layer thickness decreased. The importance of this interface as a graded refractive index layer in optical waveguides should not be overlooked.