Effect of Ag-doping process into the yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12) thin films on the structural, magnetic and optical properties

In this work, the effect of Ag doping process (directly and as a nanoparticle) into the Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) thin films on the structural, morphological, optical and magnetic properties was studied in detail. Ag-doped YIG thin films were grown on thermally oxidized Si substrates by following sol-gel and spin-coating methods. All films were crystallized without cracks by two-stages heat treatment process. The XRD patterns confirm the formation of YIG peaks, and metallic Ag peaks which settled into the structure without bonding with the YIG components. In both Ag doping processes, the coercive field (H-c) and saturation magnetization (M-s) values of the samples containing 3% Ag are significantly lower than the other samples. The M-s values of 5% Ag doped samples were found the highest in both series. The M-s values of the films between in-plane and out-of-plane measurement increased with the Ag concentration. The optical measurements indicate an absorption peak in the range of 0-4 eV in both sample series and the optical band gap of the films decreased with the Ag doping due to its metallic characteristic. The ferromagnetic resonance measurements indicate that the lowest FMR linewidth as 92 Oe is seen in the 1% Ag-doped YIG sample. The relatively cheap and easy production of the used method and additive material may enable the widespread the usage of Ag-doped YIG thin films in magneto-optical devices.