Effects of annealing atmosphere on magnetooptical properties of sputtered Bi-substituted garnet films

Great expectations are being placed on Bi:YIG films, with their prominent magnetooptical properties, as materials for use in magnetooptical disks and optical isolators. As part of efforts aimed at practical application, numerous studies are being conducted to increase the Faraday rotation and reduce the absorption coefficient of such films. It has been reported that the optical properties of Bi:YIG films are affected by the atmosphere in which the films are annealed. However, these reports dealt with LPE-grown films, which contained numerous additives. In this work, the authors have investigated the effect of the annealing atmosphere on the magnetooptical properties of Bi:YIG films prepared by RF sputtering. Their results are reported