1. Enhanced magneto-optical effect in Y1.5Ce1.5Fe5O12 thin films deposited on silicon by pulsed laser deposition
- Author
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X. Liang, P.H. Zhou, Chong Wang, Bin Peng, Yan Zhang, Caroline A. Ross, Martin Zahradnik, Lei Zhang, J.X. Xie, Haipeng Lu, Martin Veis, Lukáš Beran, L. J. Deng, Miroslav Kučera, and Lei Bi
- Subjects
Materials science ,Fabrication ,Silicon ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Nanotechnology ,02 engineering and technology ,01 natural sciences ,Pulsed laser deposition ,symbols.namesake ,0103 physical sciences ,Faraday effect ,Materials Chemistry ,Figure of merit ,Thin film ,010302 applied physics ,business.industry ,Mechanical Engineering ,Metals and Alloys ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,chemistry ,Mechanics of Materials ,symbols ,Optoelectronics ,Crystallite ,0210 nano-technology ,business ,Single crystal - Abstract
Polycrystalline Ce:YIG thin films deposited on silicon are promising material candidates for integrated nonreciprocal photonic devices. So far, the reported Faraday rotation of polycrystalline Ce:YIG thin films on silicon is much lower than that of their single crystal or epitaxial thin film counterparts, limiting the magneto-optical figure of merit, device bandwidth and fabrication tolerance. In this paper, we report the growth of Ce:YIG thin films on silicon from targets with high Ce concentration up to nominally Y 1.5 Ce 1.5 Fe 5 O 12 by pulsed laser deposition. The polycrystalline Y 1.5 Ce 1.5 Fe 5 O 12 thin film showed pure garnet phase, smooth surface roughness of 0.7 nm, a dominant Ce 3+ valence state and a bulk-like saturation magnetization of 125 emu/cm 3 at room temperature. This material shows high Faraday rotation of −6410 deg/cm at 1550 nm wavelength, exceeding that of an Y 2 Ce 1 Fe 5 O 12 epitaxial thin film on a GGG (100) substrate. However higher loss and lower figure of merit is also observed at 1550 nm wavelength compared to Y 2 Ce 1 Fe 5 O 12 thin films, possibly due to the low oxygen partial pressure during fabrication. Low deposition oxygen partial pressure is essential to enhance the Ce solubility and Ce 3+ concentration, which results in large Faraday rotation.
- Published
- 2017