The role of 4f14 Lu3+ and 3d0 Sc3+ in faraday rotating glass/ceramic: Structural stability, magnetic and magneto optical properties

Abstract

Magneto-optical materials exhibiting low/no temperature-dependent Faraday rotation, high magnetization and good thermal/mechanical stability are required in various magneto-optical sensing and photonic applications. For the first time, we employed the rare earth Lu3+ and Sc3+ ions to strengthen the structure and enhance magnetic& magneto-optical properties of heavy metal oxide diamagnetic glasses. Experimental results revealed that the doping of Lu2O3 and Sc2O3 not only significantly increased the UV-VIS transmittance, improved the thermal stability, Vicker's hardness and tensile strength, but also remarkably increased the magnetic susceptibility and Verdet constant. The reasons were analyzed through the XRD, FT-IR, Raman spectra, oxygen chemical bonds, EPR of Lu2O3 and Sc2O3 crystal fields and affinity to oxygen. Promising Faraday rotating glass with Verdet constant of 76.32 rad/Tm at 633 nm, thermal stability KH = 0.817, very low thermal expansion coefficient (14.04 × 10−6 K−1) and high diamagnetic susceptibility of 9.25 × 10−6 emu/g has obtained which has potential merits for photonics and MO devices applications.