Optimisation of deposition conditions of YIG films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Sposito, A., Stenning, G.B.G., May-Smith, T.C., Sloyan, K.A., de Groot, P.A.J. and Eason, R.W. (2011) Optimisation of deposition conditions of YIG films grown by pulsed laser deposition. 10th conference of the International OSA Network of Students (IONS-10), Southampton, United Kingdom. 09 - 11 Aug 2011.

Abstract

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG — Y3Al5O12) and other magneto-optic materials find application in bulk and waveguide Faraday rotators/isolators, magneto-optic memory and microwave/radio frequency (RF) devices (e.g. magneto-static wave band pass filters). Depending on the final application, some properties such as coercivity and magnetic anisotropy can be varied accordingly: for instance waveguide magneto-optic rotators/isolators require the "easy axis" to be in-plane; microwave devices need low coercivity, whereas magnetic recording media need high coercivity.
Magnetic properties of magneto-optic garnets can be easily tailored in Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) by changing the deposition conditions: for example, it has been demonstrated that coercivity and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth of YIG films decrease with increasing substrate temperature. However, there are several parameters involved in this film growth method, each of which can be varied over a wide range of values.
We report on the optimisation of deposition conditions of YIG films grown by PLD to minimise the FMR linewidth. In particular the effects of substrate temperature and of thermal annealing on crystallinity and FMR linewidth have been studied. Further research is being carried out to investigate how other parameters (gas pressure, distance between target and substrate, laser fluence and repetition frequency) affect crystal, optical and magnetic qualities of PLD-grown YIG films.

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Contributors

Author: R.W. Eason

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