Growth and characterization of cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet single crystals for magneto-optical applications

This paper is concerned with the preparation and characterization of cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnets, which are known to be oxides having a large Faraday rotation effect. Using the improved flux method we successfully grew bulk single crystals of iron garnet doped with Ce3+ ions with maximum substitutions up to 0.349. Here we investigate different solution compositions for maximum Ce3+ substitution. The Faraday rotation and optical absorption spectra were measured in the near infrared region for different Ce3+ ion substituted iron garnets. The specific Faraday rotation of Ce0.349Eu0.195Y2.456Fe5O12 was found to be 1430 deg/cm at a wavelength of 780 nm and -1280 deg/cm at 1150 nm. The Ce substitution prominently enhances the Faraday rotation effect, and Yb3+ and Eu3+ ions substituted for Y3+ in the dodecahedral sites of YIG can increase the concentration of Ce3+ ions, depressing the formation of nonmagnetic Ce4+ ions by charge compensation.