J PHYS IV FRANCE 7 (1 997) Colloque C 1, Supplkment au Journal de Physique I11 de mars 1997 Magnetooptical Properties of Ce-Doped YIG Single Crystals

Abstract. The Faraday rotation (FR) of cerium substituted yttrium iron garnets single crystals Ys,C+Fe>On (YIG:Ce) with x=0.055 has been investigated at 1152 and 632.8 nm in the 6 K- 600 K temperature range and magnetic field up to 20 kOe applied along the [Il l] and [loo] directions. In contrast to magnetic roperties, the FR of MG.Ce is strongly different fiom FR of pure MG at both wavelengths. The FR contribution of the Cegf ions, mainly attributed to intra-ionic electric dipole transitions between the 4P and 4P 5d1 configurations, is discussed within the fiame of the one-ion model of fehagnetic gamets. Recently, it has been shown that Ce-substituted yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG:Ce) are very promising magnetooptical (MO) materials both for MO applications and fundamental studies[l-61. This is due to the specific efficiency of the ce3+ ions which is much larger than that of ~ i ~ + ions. Much work deal with the wavelength dependence, at room temperature and fixe