Magnetic anisotropy of magneto-optical materials, highly-bismuth substituted iron garnets

What is it about?

Bi-substituted rare-earth iron garnets, Bi2.5:RIGs (R : rare-earth element) exhibit the excellent magneto-optical (MO) properties. This paper presents MO properties of Bi2.5:RIG (R = Y, Pr, Nd, Sm, and Eu) thin films on Gd3Ga5O12 (100) substrates by the metal-organic decomposition method. The magnetic anisotropy constants, the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy Ku and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy K1, of these films were also investigated by using the ferromagnetic resonance measurement. We found that the Ku of the Bi2.5RIGs depend on the kind of rare-earth element.

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Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash

Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash

Why is it important?

It is essential to control magnetic anisotropies of magnetic materials considering those applications. Bi2.5:RIGs are promising materials for MO applications such as MO imaging technique, MO holography, MO neural network device, etc., because of those excellent MO properties. However, precise control of magnetic anisotropy of Bi2.5:RIGs are required. This paper shows the possibility of controlling the magnetic anisotropy in Bi2.5:RIGs thin films by choosing rare-earth elements.