Ce-substituted YIG films grown by pulsed laser deposition for magneto-optic waveguide devices

Ce-substituted yttrium iron garnet films have been epitaxially grown on (111)-oriented gadolinium gallium garnet substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique. X-ray diffraction measurements show epitaxial growth of the garnet film along its [111] axis. The films were grown at substrate temperature of 790°C and various oxygen partial pressure varying from 10 to 100 mTorr. From the magnetic properties measured by VSM, we found that the fabricated (CeY₂)Fe₅ O₁₂ films have in-plane magnetization with no preferential easy direction in the plane. The saturation Faraday rotation values obtained from measurements at λ=633 nm and room temperature are found to be dependent on the oxygen pressure, with the maximum value of 0.7 deg/μm for the films grown at 50 mTorr