Epitaxial Bi3Fe5O12(001) films grown by pulsed laser deposition and reactive ion beam sputtering techniques

We report on processing and comparative characterization of epitaxial Bi3Fe5O12 (BIG) films grown onto Gd3(ScGa)5O12[GSGG,(001)] single crystal using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and reactive ion beam sputtering (RIBS) techniques. A very high deposition rate of about 0.8 μm/h has been achieved in the PLD process. Comprehensive x-ray diffraction analyses reveal epitaxial quality both of the films: they are single phase, exclusively (001) oriented, the full width at half maximum of the rocking curve of (004) Bragg reflection is 0.06 deg for PLD and 0.05 deg for RIBS film, strongly in-plane textured with cube-on-cube film-to-substrate epitaxial relationship. Saturation magnetization 4πMs and Faraday rotation at 635 nm were found to be 1400 Gs and −7.8 deg/μm in PLD-BIG, and 1200 Gs and −6.9 deg/μm in RIBS-BIG. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements performed at 9.25 GHz yielded the gyromagnetic ratio γ=1.797×107 l/s Oe, 1.826×107 l/s Oe; the constants of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy were Ku*=−8.66×104 erg/cm3, −8.60×104 erg/cm3; the cubic magnetic anisotropy K1=−2.7×103 erg/cm3,−3.8×103 erg/cm3; and the FMR linewidth ΔH=25 and 34 Oe for PLD and RIBS films correspondingly. High Faraday rotation, low microwave loss, and low coercive field ⩽40 Oe of BIG/GSGG(001) films promise their use in integrated magneto-optic applications.