New Magneto‐Optical Film of Ce,Ga:GIG with High Performance

Ce3+-doped Gd3Fe5O12 (Ce:GIG) film has a good application prospect in the field of integrated optical device. In this article, Ce:GIG and Ce,Ga:GIG films were deposited onto the quartz glass substrate by using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering technology. The crystal phase, surface morphology, magnetization, and magnetic circular dichroism properties of films were characterized by using the X-ray powder diffraction, atomic force microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer, and circular dichroism spectrometer. The results show that as-prepared Ce,Ga:GIG films has a good quality and show an excellent magneto-optical performance, and the doping of Ga3+ ion and the annealing process have significant effect on the magnetism and magneto-optical performances. It is expected that Ce,Ga:GIG film with a moderate Ga3+-doping content is a better candidate than Ce:GIG and Ce:YIG films for the next generation of integrated optical isolator and other magneto-optical equipment.