Mixed Rare-earth Iron Garnet ReYbBiIG Single-crystals for High-performance Optical Isolation

A new type of magneto-optical Faraday rotation iron garnet bulk single- crystal with composition of .ReYbBilG (Re:Tb3+, Ho3+, Y3+, etc.) was designed and grown by using Bi203/B2O3 as main flux and using Accelerated Crucible Rotation Technique for single-crystal growth. It is believed, that through combining of two types of Bi3+-substituted rare-earth iron garnets with opposite signs of Faraday rotation temperature and wavelength coefficients, the magneto-optical properties could be much improved. Series of .ReYbBilG bulk single crystals with large magneto-optical figure of merit, low magnetic field for saturation, low near-infrared absorption, and small Faraday rotation temperature and wavelength coefficients were obtained, such as Ho0.85Yb1.12Bi1.03Fe5O12 and Tb2.06Yb0.46Bi0.48Fe5O12, etc. Investigation of ReYbBilG used as Faraday rotator material for optical isolator indicates that our new designed and grown magneto-optical Faraday rotation crystals are good candidate for temperature stabilized and wideband optical isolators employing in WDM optical fiber communication systems.