Strain-induced magnetic anisotropy of REIG thin films grown on YAG(111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Several studies have revealed using rare earth (RE) elements instead of yttrium to regulate the strain-induced magnetic anisotropy of garnet films in recent years. In this study, we used pulsed laser deposition to fabricate RE iron garnet (REIG) thin films on (111)-oriented yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) substrates. The REIG films are 100 nm in thickness and crystalline with (111)-orientation. The out-of-plane (444)-plane spacing decreases as the ionic radius of RE metal ions decreases, while the crystallite size increases. Samarium, holmium, and yttrium iron garnet (SmIG, HoIG, and YIG) have out-of-plane compressive strain, while erbium and thulium iron garnet (ErIG and TmIG) have weak out-of-plane tensile strain. The strain of the REIG films is resulted from lattice mismatch, off-stoichiometry, and the recrystallization process by thermal annealing. SmIG has a rather rough surface because of the crystalline distortion due to the largest ionic radius of Sm and the lattice mismatch between SmIG and YAG substrates. Due to negative magnetostriction constant and out-of-plane compressive strain, SmIG and HoIG films show strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in vibrating sample magnetometry and magneto-optical Faraday effect (MOFE). MOFE also revealed that the REIG films have different sensitivities at different wavelengths of light. With further tuning PMA on SmIG and HoIG by decreasing the thickness and lateral size, our findings could pave the way for high-density nano-scale magnetic information storage based on REIG thin films.