Epitaxial growth of highly Bi-substituted garnet films with narrow FMR linewidth and low optical absorption loss

The epitaxial growth of highly Bi-substituted iron garnet films on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrates prepared by the LPE (liquid-phase-epitaxy) technique is investigated. The growth temperatures are carefully controlled so as to obtain crack-free films. A ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth of 0.6 Oe was measured, which is the smallest value reported to date for such films. The optical characteristics of the films are discussed. Magnetostatic surface wave propagation was observed in the prepared films. As the prepared films have low FMR linewidth, low optical absorption and high Faraday rotation, they have good potential for magnetostatic-wave-based optical waveguide devices.<>