Growth and Characterization of Magnetooptic Garnet Films with Planar Uniaxial Anisotropy

Abstract

ABSTRACTThick film garnet Faraday rotators with perpendicular anisotropy have limited utility for variable polarization rotation applications because multi-domain effects result in large effective insertion losses in device applications. Thick film growth of (BiGdLu)3(FeGaAl)5O12 on (100) substrates yields growth-induced anisotropies ranging from positive anisotropy perpendicular domains to negative anisotropy in-plane domains. Planar domains show variable magnetization by domain rotation with a uniform projection of magnetization along the axis of light propagation. This can produce low-loss devices when operated in sub-saturation applications such as magnetic field sensors, variable optical attenuators and polarization controllers.