Noncollinear coplanar magneto-optic interaction of guided optical wave and magnetostatic surface waves in yttrium iron garnet-gadolinium gallium garnet waveguides

Abstract

Wideband noncollinear coplanar guided-wave magneto-optic diffraction and mode conversion by magnetostatic surface waves at multigigahertz (3–7 GHz) carrier frequencies in yttrium iron garnet-gadolinium gallium garnet waveguides have been observed and measured in detail for the first time. Interaction configuration, physical mechanisms, summary of a theoretical treatment, and some experimental results obtained at 1.152 μm optical wavelength are presented. This noncollinear coplanar magneto-optic interaction configuration should result in a number of integrated optic devices for wideband communications and signal processing applications at electronically tunable microwave carrier frequencies. The potential advantages of the resulting magneto-optic devices over the existing acousto-optic devices are also discussed.