Site selectivity in praseodymium- and bismuth-substituted gadolinium gallium garnet epilayers

Abstract

Praseodymium- and bismuth-substituted gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) layers have been prepared by liquid phase epitaxy on (111)- and (110)-orientated GGG substrates. By an investigation of linear dichroism of Pr 3+-transitions, the supercooling dependence of dodecahedral site selectivity in Pr-substituted GGG can be shown to differ considerably for (110)- and (111)-epitaxial layers: An increase of site selectivity with supercooling is found in (111) layers while it is constant in (110) layers. The long wavelength 1S 0 → 3P 1-transition of the Bi 3+ ion has been utilized to detect site selectivity in (110)- orientated Bi-substituted GGG layers.