Europium-substituted cerium iron garnet thin films for silicon-integrated nonreciprocal photonic device applications

作者：Yucong Yang, Tianchi Zhang, Di Wu, Zixuan Wei, Junxian Wang, Yunfei Xie, Shuyao Chen, Yizhi Chen, Jiejun Su, Jun Qin, Tao Liu, Lei Bi · 发表于：APL Materials · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1063/5.0256931 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Magneto-Optical Properties and Applications、Photonic and Optical Devices、Photonic Crystals and Applications

Optical nonreciprocal devices are key components in photonic integrated circuits. Cerium-doped yttrium iron garnet (Ce:YIG) has been widely studied for nonreciprocal photonic devices in the telecommunication wavelength range. Despite recent progress, challenges arise when depositing polycrystalline Ce:YIG thin films on non-garnet substrates, resulting in weaker magneto-optical performance due to Ce4+ segregation. In this paper, we report enhanced Faraday rotation (FR) and figure of merit (FoM) in Ce:EuIG films deposited on silicon. We demonstrate a high Ce3+ concentration of 81.36%, FR of −3225 deg/cm, and elevated FoM of 33.1 deg/dB in silicon-integrated polycrystalline Ce:EuIG thin films by utilizing a two-step growth process involving magnetron sputtering and rapid thermal annealing. These results highlight the promising potential of Ce:EuIG for nonreciprocal photonic devices.