Optical Magnetic Field Sensors Using Mixed Rare-Earth Iron Garnet Crystals

Optical magnetic field (current) sensors have recently reached practical application. This paper reports on evaluations of LPE garnet (TbY) IG crystals for magnetic field sensors, and on their optical characteristics. 100 μm thick films were produced on {111} GGG substrate, but pits appeared even when using a Pb
_o
/B
₂
O
₃
melt with a low 6.0 molar ratio. We studied the sensitivity and linearity of the Faraday rotation of these LPE films.