Optical spectroscopy of sputtered nanometer-thick yttrium iron garnet films

Journal Article · Thu May 07 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4906526· OSTI ID:22409968

Jakubisova-Liskova, Eva; Visnovsky, Stefan ^[1]; Chang, Houchen; Wu, Mingzhong ^[2]

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1. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 3, 12116 Prague (Czech Republic)
2. Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 (United States)

Nanometer (nm)-thick yttrium iron garnet (Y{sub 3}Fe{sub 5}O{sub 12}, YIG) films present interest for spintronics. This work employs spectral ellipsometry and magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) spectra to characterize nm-thick YIG films grown on single-crystal Gd{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}O{sub 12} substrates by magnetron sputtering. The thickness (t) of the films ranges between 10 nm and 40 nm. Independent on t, the polar MOKE hysteresis loops saturate in the field of about 1.8 kOe, consistent with the saturation magnetization in bulk YIG (4πM{sub s} ≈ 1.75 kG). The MOKE spectrum measured at photon energies between 1.3 eV and 4.5 eV on the 38-nm-thick film agrees with that measured on single-crystal YIG bulk materials. The MOKE spectrum of the 12-nm-thick film still preserves the structure of the bulk YIG but its amplitude at lower photon energies is modified due to the fact that the radiation penetration depth exceeds 20 nm. The t dependence of the MOKE amplitude is consistent with MOKE calculations. The results indicate that the films are stoichiometric, strain free, without Fe{sup 2+}, and preserve bulk YIG properties down to t ≈ 10 nm.

• OSTI ID: 22409968
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 17 Vol. 117; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ELLIPSOMETRY
EV RANGE
FERRITE GARNETS
HYSTERESIS
IRON IONS
IRON OXIDES
KERR EFFECT
MAGNETIZATION
MAGNETO-OPTICAL EFFECTS
MONOCRYSTALS
PENETRATION DEPTH
SPUTTERING
STRAINS
SUBSTRATES
THIN FILMS
YTTRIUM COMPOUNDS