Structural, optical and magnetic properties of iron-garnet films after ionic etching

The experimental results of studying the influence of ion etching of cation-substituted iron-garnets single-crystal films on their structural, magnetic, optical and magneto-optical properties are presented in article. It has been shown, that the ionic etching of the surface of single-crystallin garnets significantly decrease the surface roughness. An analysis of the domain structure, ferromagnetic resonance spectra, and magneto-optical hysteresis loops in a bismuth-substituted iron-garnet epitaxial film during layer-by-layer ion etching showed the presence of three different layers, the state of which changes relative to the compensation point, and the interlayer interfaces correspond to the transition through the compensation point. It has been shown, that the position of interlayer interfaces can be changed by the sample temperature changing. The investigation of optical and magneto-optical characteristics showed that in single-crystallin (epitaxial) films of iron-garnets the ion etching does not impair optical transmission and does not destroy the garnet structure up to a thickness of tens of nanometers (the Faraday effect is retained).