Garnet films of composition Lu3−xBixFe5−yGayO12 are grown by liquid-phase epitaxy on [111]-oriented substrates of gadolinium gallium garnet. Faraday rotation and saturation magnetization are measured as a function of substitution levels, which range up to x=1.4 and y=1.8, respectively. Nonreciprocal propagation of the TM0 is studied at a wavelength of 1.3 μm. It is shown that the difference between forward and backward propagation constants can be optimized using double layers with opposite sign of the Faraday rotation. Agreement between experiments and calculations is excellent.

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The magnetic flux penetration into thin type-II superconducting films with circular defects is investigated. The artificial circular defects ͑diameter ϭ40 m) in an YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7Ϫ␦ thin film ͑thickness Ϸ300 nm) were prepared by pulse-laser irradiation. The flux penetration into the zero-field-cooled superconducting film was visualized by means of the magneto-optic method. A stepwise increase of the external magnetic field allowed a detailed investigation of the influence of local defects on the flux penetration. For a magnetic field parallel to a long sample ͑longitudinal geometry͒ with a long cylindrical defect a single parabolic discontinuity line appears. Also in the case of a thin superconducting film exposed to a transverse magnetic field ͑transverse geometry͒, a single parabolic discontinuity line has been supposed in the vicinity of a local defect. On the contrary, our investigations show that the flux and current distribution around a single defect in a superconducting thin film can be determined not by a single, but by two discontinuity parabolas. In thin superconducting films in transverse geometry screening currents in the Meissner region ( jϽ j c ) are present in contrast to extended infinitely long samples in the longitudinal geometry. We explain our experimental results by the influence of these Meissner screening currents on the temporal formation of the shape of an approaching flux front.

Using a reflection magneto-optic technique we have investigated natural in-