DOMAIN EFFECTS IN FARADAY-EFFECT SENSORS BASED ON IRON GARNETS

Domain-induced diffraction effects produced by two iron garnet thick f ilms and two bulk crystals are compared. The thick films, characterize d by a serpentine magnetic domain structure, produced nonlinear respon se functions; this is in qualitative agreement with a one-dimensional diffraction model. Bulk iron garnet crystals, which exhibited a comple x three-dimensional domain structure, produced qualitatively similar e ffects that diminished with increasing crystal length. Differential si gnal processing resulted in a linear signal for the thick films and a primarily sinusoidal response for the bulk crystals.