This study explores the fabrication of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) single crystal fibers using the laser heated pedestal growth (LHPG) method with the experimental addition of B2O3. The incorporation of B2O3 facilitates the fiber fabrication process by lowering the required growth temperatures and likely modifying melt viscosity behavior, consistent with the established fluxing behavior of B2O3 and the comparative viscosity trend observed in the TMA–VFT analysis, thereby improving process efficiency while maintaining fiber quality. Structural characterization using EBSD and SC-XRD reveals a transition from polycrystalline to single-crystal behavior, with improved alignment along the 111 direction without altering the garnet structure. Magnetic measurements show increases in saturation magnetization in B2O3-assisted fibers. Three-dimensional anisotropy energy modeling, based on EBSD-derived Euler angles, indicates that the enhanced crystallinity and orientation contribute to reorientation of MCA energy distribution due to improved crystallographic alignment. Faraday rotation measurements show that the B2O3-assisted sample exhibits a rotation angle closer to reported values for high-quality YIG, suggesting improved phase purity and crystallographic quality. These findings demonstrate that B2O3-assisted LHPG growth is a scalable and nontoxic approach to producing high-performance YIG fibers for integrated photonic and magnetic field sensing applications.
Hong et al. (Wed,) studied this question.