Effects of diamagnetic Ga dilution on the Faraday response of bismuth-doped iron garnet films

摘要

In bismuth-doped iron garnets, diamagnetic dilution of Fe with Ga is a well-known method to increase the Faraday rotation response under externally applied magnetic fields. It is found, however, that while this method improves responsivity at larger field strengths, the responsivity under smaller fields (which are more typical in sensing applications) is generally unaffected by Ga doping. The data indicate that the low-field responsivity is limited by anomalous pinning effects in the rotational magnetization process of the ferromagnetic domains. To overcome this, a magnetic biasing technique was developed, which enhances responsivity by activating Barkhausen steps in the films to free the domains from their pinning sites.