A LARGE FARADAY-EFFECT IN RH4-SUBSTITUTED MAGNETIC GARNETS()

A large Faraday rotation is reported for Rh (4+) -substituted magnetic garnets in the near infrared wavelength region. The Faraday rotation at 0.9 mu m reaches at about seven times as large as that in YIG by su bstituting Rh (4+) ions of only 0.13 per formula unit at room temperat ure. From the electronic stare calculations of a (Rh (4+) O 8 ) (8-) o ctahedal cluster performed by using an SCF-Unrestricted-SW X a method the large Faraday rotation is assigned to the charge transfer transiti ons of an electron from O 2p to Rh 4d orbitals, or t 1 u (2p) --> t 2 g (4d) and t 2 a (n) (2p) --> t 2 f * (4d) transitions.