LPE Growth of Bismuth Substituted Iron Garnet Films with in-plane Magnetization

We developed high quality Bi substituted Lu iron garnet (Bi,Lu)3(Fe,Ga)5O12 films with in-plane magnetization to use for magneto-optical imaging (MOI). These films were grown on 1-inch (100) orientated Gd3Ga5012 substrates by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) using PbO-B2O3 flux. In particular, in order to reduce defect density in the film, we optimized the melt composition and growth temperature. We could almost remove defects caused by adhesion of fine garnet crystallites by increasing the amount of flux. The in-plane magnetization was obtained by controlling the stress-induced anisotropy caused by the lattice misfit between film and substrate. These high quality Bi garnet films had the Faraday rotation coefficient θF of -690∼-810 deg/mm at 633nm, the saturation magnetization 4⊥Ms of 30mT and the perpendicular saturating field Hs of 120mT at room temperature.