Sputter deposition of cerium yttrium iron garnet films on substrates with ion-beam bombarded patterns

We report the experimental results of magnetooptic rare-earth iron-garnet s puttered film deposition on-substrates with a modified surface. The magneto optic garnet considered here is cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet whic h is one of the promising materials for nonreciprocal optical devices and m agnetooptic recording media. The surface of the substrate, gadolinium galli um garnet, is etched by ion-beam bombardment, whose energy was controllable from 0.2 keV to I keV. By varying the ion-beam energy, the deposited films can be in either the crystalline or the amorphous state and the quality of grown crystalline films can be improved. The results obtained are explaine d in terms of the surface morphology of substrates.