Recent advances in development of magnetic garnet thin films for applications in spintronics and photonics

Abstract

Abstract Magnetic garnets (MG) are insulators with superior magnetic and optical properties, such as high Curie temperature, highly tunable bulk perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), ferrimagnetic nature with low net moment, extremely low Gilbert damping, strong magneto-optic effects, optical nonreciprocity and low optical loss, etc. Consequently, these attributes make them particularly suitable for the applications in the next generation spintronic and photonic devices, which exhibit low energy consumption, room temperature fast operation speed and high integration density. Significant efforts have already been carried out for the development of high quality MG thin films as well as exploiting the applications of these MG thin films in novel spintronic and photonic devices. In this review, we have summarized the recent progresses in the related subjects listed as follow: (1) growth of epitaxial MG thin films on non-magnetic garnet substrates, including yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films with ultra-low damping on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrates and MG thin films with PMA on non-magnetic garnet substrates; (2) integration of MG films on non-garnet substrates, including wafer bonding or transfer printing epitaxial high-quality MG thin films on non-garnet substrates and monolithic deposition of MG thin films on non-garnet substrates; (3) applications of MG thin films in spintronics, including preliminary works for realizing of spin-orbit-torque (SOT) driven fast Skyrmion motion, magnetic proximity effect and SOT switching; (4) applications of MG films in photonic devices, including nonreciprocal photonic devices and magneto-nanophotonic devices.