LPE films of bismuth-substituted bubble garnet

Thin films of Y
2.7
Bi
0.3
Fe
3.8
Ga
1.2
O
12
have been grown on {111} -oriented Gd
3
Ga
5
O
12
single-crystal substrates by isothermal liquid-phase epitaxy using Bi
2
O
3
-PbO-B
2
O
3
flux. Serpentine-like domains and, under the application of a bias field, bubble domains were observed in the films to have optically high contrast, which originates from an anomously large Faraday rotation caused by bismuth substitution. The sign of the Faraday rotation of the films was negative. The magnitude was 2 to 10 times larger than that of Y
3
Fe
3.8
Ga
1.2
O
12
in the wavelength region between 0.5 and 0.8 μm. The absorption coefficient of the films was a little larger than that of Y
3
Fe
5
O
12
in the wavelength region below 0.5 μm. The domain wall velocity of the films versus applied field was nearly the same as that of Y
3
Fe
3.8
Ga
1.2
O
12
films.