Structural, Optical and Magnetic Properties of YIG Doped with Erbium and Terbium Nanofilms using Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

Abstract. The combined substitution of Tb and Er ions at the yttrium site with a formula Y 3-x-y Tb x Er y Fe 5 O 12 , (x = 0.0, 0.2) and (y = 0.0, 0.2, 0.6, 1.0 and 1.4) were prepared by a sol-gel method. The crystalline structures of all films were found to have a pure single phase garnet structure. This result confirmed the successful incorporation of erbium and terbium ions into YIG structure. The lattice constant increased linearly with Er +3 concentrations from 12.379 to 12.532 Å. The morphology measurement revealed the formation of nanoparticles films. The magnetic properties characterization exhibited that all films are soft ferrimagnetic materials .The results showed the saturation magnetization Ms of pure YIG at 150 (emu / cm 3 ). The Ms value decreased to 110 emu / cm 3 at concentration of (x=0.2, y=0.0), then increased with increment of (y) content in a linear manner. The optical transparency of films was over 96 % at (y=0.6) in the wavelength range of 600 to 900 nm. At a short wavelength (λ < 400 nm), absorption coefficient α increased linearly with increment of Er 3+ ions. Because of nearly zero absorption coefficient in the NIR region, the films could be useful as optical isolator.

Properties of Ferrite Garnet (Bi, Lu, Y)3(Fe, Ga)5O12 Thin Film Materials Prepared by RF Magnetron Sputtering

“…Research efforts, focusing on the refinement of structure and composition of garnets through the addition of a number of elements into the garnet material system, have resulted in scientific and technological benefits for various emerging applications [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Many reports have demonstrated the successful synthesis of new garnet material types by substituting the yttrium with either the transition-metal or rare-earth ions, such as Bi 3+ , Ce 3+ , Er 3+ , Tb 3+ and others, into the dodecahedral sites, and also replacing the Fe 3+ ions by other elements (such as Ga 3+ , Al 3+ , or other metals) into the tetrahedral sublattice sites [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. Also, several composite-type material systems have been explored to improve the optical and magneto-optical properties of highly bismuth-substituted ferrite garnet thin-film materials [23,24,25,26,27,28,29].…”