Growth of epitaxial garnet film by LPE for application to integrated magneto-optic light switch arrays

We investigate the dependence of the properties of garnet films grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) on the procedure and the temperature of growth to tailor magnetic properties of Bi, Gd, Ga: YIG film for application to integrated magneto-optic light switch arrays. Because the yttrium and gallium concentrations of the films decreased slightly and the bismuth, iron concentrations of the films increased slightly with decreases of the growth temperature, the magnetic properties of the garnet film grown by LPE are very sensitive specially to a growth temperature. The decrease of Hat with decreasing growth temperature indicates that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy of the film decreases. The Bi, Gd, Ga:YIG film grown at around 730 degreesC have good magnetic properties, i.e., a low value of 4piM(s) of 120 G, a low value of saturation field H-sat of 168 Oe, and a low perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for application of the magneto-optic spatial light modulators. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.