Physical properties and behaviour of highly Bi-substituted magneto-optic garnets for applications in integrated optics and photonics

Abstract

Rare-earth and Bi-substituted iron garnet thin filmmaterials exhibit strong potential for application in various fields of science and frontier optical technologies. Bi-substituted iron garnets possess extraordinary optical and MO properties and are still considered as the bestMO functional materials for various emerging integrated optics and photonics applications. However, theseMO garnet materials are rarely seen in practical photonics use due to their high optical losses in the visible spectral region. In this paper, we report on the physical properties and magneto-optic behaviour of high-performance RF sputtered highly bismuth-substituted iron garnet and garnet-oxide nanocomposite films of generic composition type (Bi, Dy/Lu)3 (Fe, Ga/Al) 5O 12. Our newly synthesized garnet materials formhigh-quality nanocrystalline thin film layers which demonstrate excellent optical andMO properties suitable for a wide range of applications in integrated optics and photonics. Copyright © 2011 Mohammad Nur-E-Alam et al.