Growth of magneto-optic Ce:YIG thin films on amorphous silica substrates

This paper presents a method for the growth of thin films of cerium substituted YIG (Ce:YIG) on an amorphous substrate. The Ce:YIG film was grown in two steps. The first step was the deposition of an amorphous film of CeY(2)Fe(5)O(12) on a SiO(2) substrate by RF-magnetron sputtering. The second step was crystallizing the film by raising its temperature to around 600 degreesC in vacuum. A film of crysatllized Ce:YIG was obtained after this thermal treatment. For the thermal treatment process to work, a small chip of GGG plate was placed on the film. On the other hand, crystallization did not occur when the GGG chip was not placed on the film. The Faraday rotation OF was about 2300 deg/mm for light at a wavelength of 630 nm, and this was approximately the same value as for an epitaxial film of Ce:YIG on a GGG substrate. This method will be useful in the development of non-reciprocal planar light-wave circuits. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.