Luminescent Magneto-Optical Photonic Crystals

We compare luminescent properties of several Er-doped garnet films as building blocks in all-garnet heteroepitaxial magneto-optical photonic crystals: La3Ga5O12, Gd3Ga5O12, Y3Fe5O12, Bi3Fe5O12, and Bi2.97Er0.03Fe4Al0.5Ga0.5O12. Er substituents on the dodecahedral lattice sites do not decrease giant Faraday rotation in Bi3Fe5O12 garnet; meanwhile providing intense room temperature C-band photoluminescence (PL). Fe3+ ion works as a sensitizer for Er resulting in fivefold PL enhancement in iron garnets compared to gallium ones. PL lifetime in gallium garnets is in millisecond range reaching 6 ms in Gd2.9Er0.1Ga5O12. The first luminescent one-dimensional heteroepitaxial all-garnet magneto-optical (MO) photonic crystal was composed from diamagnetic Sm3Ga5O12 and MO-active Bi2.97Er0.03Fe4Al0.5Ga0.5O12 garnet layers by rf-magnetron sputtering on Gd3Ga5O12(111) substrate. Substitution of ferric ions by aluminum and gallium improved transparency and induced perpendicular anisotropy in pure Bi3Fe5O12. Photonic crystals owned a record high magneto-optical quality and a latching type (magnetic remnant) Faraday rotation (FR). At the resonance wavelength 775 nm, specific FR theta(F) = -14.1 deg/mu m and MO-quality factor Q = 99.3 deg represent the highest MO performance achieved so far. Long-lived near-IR luminescence in Er substituted gallium and iron garnet layers used both as Bragg mirrors and microcavities promises magneto-optical photonic crystals to become an active lasing medium.