LPE-like growth of YIG ferrimagnetic thin films by pulsed laser ablation with molten droplets

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films were grown by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) o n (111) Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG) substrates. The second harmonic of YAG laser (532 nm) with a high laser fluence was employed to produce YIG dr oplets efficiently. It was found that YIG films prepared at RT substrates h ave a large number of solidified droplets of various sizes. Highly oriented YIG crystals were grown on the (111) GGG substrate heated at 860 degrees C by PLA using a large number of molten droplets, suggesting an LPE-like gro wth. This YIG film shows a small ferrimagnetic resonance linewidth of 7.5 O e. This value is quite small for films prepared by vapor-phase epitaxy tech niques.