Low-temperature-compatible iron garnet films grown by liquid phase epitaxy

Abstract

Single-crystalline yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films (< 100 nm) form the backbone of magnonics, owing to the record-low losses affecting their magnetization dynamics. However, thin epitaxial YIG has mostly been investigated under ambient temperatures, limited by the paramagnetic losses occurring at low temperatures due to the gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrates required for epitaxial growth. Driven by a growing interest in magnonic devices that can operate in cryogenic conditions and address quantum information applications, there is a strong need for iron garnet epitaxial films grown on diamagnetic substrates that can maintain low losses at low temperatures. In this work, we use liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) to grow ultrathin films of strained YIG on a commercial diamagnetic substrate, yttrium scandium gallium garnet (YSGG). We investigate their magnetization dynamics in the 3-300 K temperature range, and compare them to equivalent films grown on paramagnetic GGG. We demonstrate for LPE YIG on YSGG substrates a ferromagnetic resonance linewidth below 1 mT at 3 K, together with a very weak temperature and frequency dependence of the losses. The growth of YIG/YSGG by LPE provides a straightforward approach to producing iron garnet thin films for use in low-temperature investigations.