Bismuth-substituted iron garnet films prepared by RF diode sputtering

Single-phase, magnetically uniaxial Gd3-xBixFe5-yAlyO12films have been prepared by RF diode sputtering with RF substrate bias on single-crystal (Gd,Ca,Mg)3(Ga,Zr)5O12and amorphous substrates. Epitaxial growth is observed by annealing of amorphous films for lattice misfits <0.03Å (tensile stress). Intrinsic properties, such as lattice constant, saturation magnetization, and polar magnetooptic effects, compare well with liquid-phase epitaxial films of equal composition. Film imperfections originating from particles expelled from the ceramic targets cause some optical loss, increased coercivity and increased linewidth in X-ray diffraction.