Magneto-optical Faraday spectroscopy of completely bismuth-substituted Bi₃Fe₅O₁₂ garnet thin films

Abstract

Abstract We performed a magneto-optical (MO) Faraday spectroscopy study of bismuth iron garnet Bi 3 Fe 5 O 12 thin single-crystalline films with thickness from 5 to 220 nm. The Faraday rotation and ellipticity spectra were measured for photon energies ranging from 1.7 to 4.2 eV. Using a model based on two electric dipole transitions associated with tetrahedral and octahedral iron sites, we successfully reproduce the observed rotation and ellipticity spectra. The sign of both site contributions to the Faraday rotation and ellipticity spectra has been used to interpret the complex thermal dependence of the Faraday rotation and ellipticity. For a Faraday ellipticity, anomalous hysteresis loops have been observed around specific photon energies. To explain the surprising shape of hysteresis loop, a model based on the superposition of two hysteresis loops with opposite sign associated with both sites is proposed. The modelling of these hysteresis loops allows accessing the magnetic properties of each individual sublattice. Finally, we have studied the dependence of the energy level parameters on bismuth content in Yi 3− x Bi x Fe 5 O 12 garnet and on the thickness of bismuth iron garnet. Based on this analysis, we show that MO spectroscopy is a fast and non-destructive technique to determine the bi-deficiency of BIG films.