Growth and characterization of Al-substituted iron garnets for submicron diameter bubble films

Al-substituted rare-earth iron garnet films have been grown that support submicron diameter bubbles. In developing small diameter bubble films, reduction of the saturation induction of a film, 4πMS, is very important because power consumption in drive coils and chip heating increase drastically with higher magnetization. Aluminum ions have been found to be one of the most suitable substitution ions for this purpose. Moreover, owing to the small ionic radius of Al ions, it is easy to meet the lattice matching requirement between films and GGG substrates without lattice adjusting ions such as lutetium. Submicron diameter bubble films are easily grown by the conventional LPE technique in the garnet system (YSmGd)₃ (FeAl)₅ O₁₂. They show good bubble properties, well suited to practical use.