Growth and characterization of (Y3Fe5O12-Bi3Fe5O 12) heterostructures by pulsed laser deposition

Superlattice heterostructures consisting of alternating single crystalline ferrimagnetic yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) and bismuth-iron-garnet (BIG) thin film layers on gadolinium-gallium-garnet substrates show an increased saturation magnetization with respect to that of the monolayered structures grown under the same conditions. The observed effect is attributed to the distortions introduced in the YIG layers by the adjacent BIG layers. In this letter, we report our growth approach, by pulsed laser deposition, of these unusually performing thin film heterostructures.© 1995 American Institute of Physics.