IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 51, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2015 2800704

Preparation of Low Microwave Loss YIG Thin Films

by Pulsed Laser Deposition
B. Bhoi1 , B. Sahu2 , N. Venkataramani3, R. P. R. C. Aiyar1 , and Shiva Prasad2
1 Centrefor Research in Nanotechnology and Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India
2 Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India
3 Department of Metallurgical and Material Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India

Y3 Fe5 O12 thin films with thickness 10 nm ≤ t ≤ 1440 nm were grown on Gd3 Ga5 O12 (111) substrates by pulsed laser
deposition. The X-ray diffraction experiments confirmed the films are pure yttrium iron garnet (YIG) phase with preferred
(111) orientation. The magnetic and microwave properties were studied as a function of film thickness by the dc magnetization and
ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. The FMR linewidth (H) was found to decrease with the increase in film thickness
(10 nm ≤ t ≤ 45 nm), attaining a minimum value of H⊥ = 5 Oe and H|| = 6 Oe, for perpendicular and parallel resonance, and
then rising with further increase in thickness. Acid etching experiments were performed to understand the mechanism contributing
to H. The increase in H with thickness (t > 45 nm) may be explained in terms of extrinsic mechanisms, such as inhomogeneities
present at the surface of the films. However, the decrease in H with thickness (t < 45 nm) is believed to be due to the
surface anisotropy effect. The films showed low coercivity values in the range of ∼1.5–7 Oe, which is an indicator of good quality
YIG films.
Index Terms— Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), linewidth, microwave.

I. I NTRODUCTION II. E XPERIMENTAL D ETAILS

Y TTRIUM iron garnet (Y3 Fe5 O12 or YIG) is an
important garnet for microwave device applications. The
low microwave loss and high resistivity made YIG irreplace-
able constituent in microwave device technology [1], [2].
In recent years, the development of spintronic-based
microwave devices led to an extensive research on YIG thin
films [3], [4]. The emergence of this field has created a demand
for YIG thin films with low damping as in YIG bulk single
crystal and thick films. Such low-damping thin films are criti-
cally needed for both fundamental studies, such as the study of
spin pumping and device applications, and spin-torque oscilla-
tors [5], [6]. A careful control of the magnetic and microwave
properties in these films is a constant requirement for device
developments.
The liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) technique is commonly
employed for the fabrication of epitaxial YIG films of low H
(∼1 Oe) on Gd3 Ga5 O12 (GGG) substrate [1]. Compared with
LPE, the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method is a convenient
and economical method for garnet film preparation. However,
the YIG/GGG films prepared by PLD are polycrystalline with
preferred orientation and it has rarely been possible to achieve
the desired magnetic properties. It is well known that the static
and dynamic magnetic properties in polycrystalline thin films
are influenced by a variety of parameters, out of which film
thickness, composition, and surface/interface roughness play
a crucial role. In this paper, we report the effect of thickness
variation on the magnetic and microwave properties of
the films.
Manuscript received March 20, 2015; accepted May 9, 2015. Date of publi-
cation June 5, 2015; date of current version October 22, 2015. Corresponding
author: B. Bhoi (e-mail: bhoi.biswanath@gmail.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2015.2434850
0018-9464 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
YIG thin films were prepared by the PLD technique using a
KrF excimer laser (Lamda Physik) of 10 ns pulse in a vacuum
chamber, evacuated to a base vacuum of 5 × 10−6 mbar
using turbomolecular pump. The YIG target was synthesized
in our laboratory using a standard solid-state reaction method
at a sintering temperature of 1450 °C. The depositions were
carried out in oxygen atmosphere (1.3 × 10−1 mbar) with
a laser of energy 350 mJ on polished (111)-oriented GGG
substrates at a temperature of 750 °C. The laser was focused on
YIG target, which was rotated (6 r/min) during the deposition
process. The material ablated from the target was deposited
onto 1 cm × 1 cm GGG (111) substrates bonded to a resistive
heater positioned 4 cm away from the target. YIG films of
different thicknesses were prepared by varying the deposition
time. Following the deposition, the films were in situ annealed
at 750 °C for 10 min at O2 pressure of 2.5 mbar.
The thickness of the films was measured by a profilo
meter. The structure of films was studied by X-ray diffraction
(XRD, X’pert Pro, and PW 3040). The room temperature dc
magnetic measurements were carried out using a quantum
design magnetic property measurement system (MPMS)
superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)
magnetometer. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) study was
performed using electron spin resonance spectroscopy
(JES-FA200 ESR) at 9.44 GHz with the magnetic field
applied parallel (in-plane) and perpendicular (out-of-plane)
to the film surface. The FMR spectra were plotted in terms
of derivative of absorbed power as a function of magnetic
field.
III. R ESULTS
Fig. 1 shows the XRD patterns of YIG thin films of
some selected thickness. The XRD patterns clearly show
2800704 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 51, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2015

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of YIG/GGG thin films as a function of film thickness.

(444) YIG peak present adjacent to the (444) peak of GGG

substrate without any additional peaks due to impurity phases.
This indicates that the films are single-phase garnet, with
preferred (111) orientation. The split peak in XRD pattern
is attributed to the Kα1 (1.540 Å) and Kα2 (1.544 Å) lines of
the incident X-ray. The intensity of (444) YIG peaks becomes
stronger with the increase in film thickness and the peak gets
clearly resolved to Kα1 and Kα2 lines at larger thickness. The
lattice constants of YIG/GGG thin films were found to be in
the range of 12.430–12.438 Å, which is larger than the bulk
YIG (12.376 Å). A higher value of lattice parameter than the
bulk YIG has been reported in [3], [7], and [8].
Fig. 2(a) shows the parallel and perpendicular FMR spectra
for YIG films of selected thickness. Single resonance lines
were observed for the in-plane configuration. However, when
H is applied normal to the film plane, FMR spectra sometime
showed a shoulder or an additional weak resonance peak on
Fig. 2. (a) Parallel and perpendicular FMR spectra for YIG thin films of
the low field side of the main resonance line. The values of different thicknesses. (b) Variation of parallel and perpendicular
effective saturation magnetizations (4π Meff = 4π M S + Heff , FMR line widths (H|| and H⊥ ) as a function of thickness.
where 4π M S is the saturation magnetization and Heff is the Inset: H|| and H⊥ at low thickness range.
uniaxial anisotropy field) for all the YIG films were obtained
from perpendicular and parallel resonance fields using
Kittel’s equations [2]. The values of 4π Meff were found the thickness of the substrate was reduced to ∼80 μm in
to increase with the thickness and were in the range of order to minimize the strong paramagnetic contribution from
1930–2350 G. These 4π Meff values are higher than the bulk GGG substrate and the remaining substrate contribution to the
YIG (1780 G) and may be attributed to the stress-induced magnetization was subtracted while plotting the M–H curve.
anisotropy present in the films [3], [8]. Fig. 2(b) shows the Fig. 3 shows the room temperature M–H loops of YIG thin
parallel and perpendicular FMR line widths (H|| and H⊥) films for thickness having t = ∼15 nm and t = ∼1440 nm.
as a function of thickness. Three important results are evident The 4π M S for the films of thickness ranging from
from the data in Fig. 2(b): 1) for films in the thickness ∼75 to 1440 nm were found close to the bulk value of YIG and
range of ∼10–45 nm, both H⊥ and H|| decreases with ∼15 nm thick films show a 4π M S of 950 G, which is lower
the increase in thickness and attains minima of H⊥ = 5 Oe than the bulk. This film also shows a poorer saturation [9]. This
or H|| = 6 Oe for t ∼ 45 nm; 2) both the H⊥ and H|| combined with a lower value of 4π M S is a sign of the presence
increases with the film thickness in the range ∼45–1440 nm of a large amount of material in grain boundary volumes. The
films and have a value of H|| = 28 Oe and H⊥ = 20 Oe material at the grain boundary is poorly ordered and results
at ∼1440 nm; and 3) we have observed that H⊥ > H|| in nonsaturation and lower 4π M S . Similar to our results,
[Fig. 2(b) (inset)] for the films of low thicknesses Liu et al. [10] also observed a lower 4π M S value for the
(∼10 and 15 nm) and H⊥ < H|| for high thickness films. YIG films prepared by RF sputtering when the thickness
The M–H loop measurements were performed at room tem- is <10 nm. They also observed lower 4π M S even when the
perature on some selected samples. Before the measurement, film thickness is 100 nm.
BHOI et al.: PREPARATION OF LOW MICROWAVE LOSS YIG THIN FILMS BY PLD
Fig. 3. Hysteresis loops of ∼15 and 1440 nm thick YIG/GGG films.
Inset: coercivity as a function of thickness.
The coercive field (HC ) for our samples was found to
increase from ∼1.5 to 7 Oe when the film thickness is
increased from ∼15 to 1440 nm [Fig. 3 (inset)]. These values
of coercivity are much lower than those reported in the
literature. For example, Dorsey et al. [11] observed
a HC value of 15 Oe, while Krockenberger et al. [7] reported
a very high value HC = 32 Oe for PLD deposited YIG films.
Here, the films under investigation show a very low HC value
even though the thickness varies from a nanometer to a
micrometer. The low HC is an excellent indicator of the quality
of PLD grown YIG films in our laboratory.
IV. D ISCUSSION
One of the important results from our study is that we
are able to get a low linewidth of 5 Oe in a polycrystalline
YIG film by carefully optimizing the deposition parameters.
The other interesting fact is that we find a sharp decrease in
H with thickness in the range ∼10–45 nm. For thicknesses
above ∼45 nm, the H is found to increases slowly. Many
authors have observed a decrease in H in the case of metallic
thin films with the increase in thickness in the range of
2–30 nm and explained it on the basis of two-magnon process,
anisotropy field, or surface inhomogeneity [12]–[14].
To understand if the quality of the film is responsible for
change in H as a function of thickness, we carried out an
acid etching experiment on selected YIG films. We decreased
the thickness of the films by etching it in concentrated HCl
for different periods of time and FMR spectra were recorded.
Fig. 4 shows the H⊥ for ∼850 nm YIG film as a function
of etching time. We note that the H⊥ values drop sharply
from 15 to 9 Oe after a 5 min etch time and then saturate
to a value of 7 Oe at 90 min of etching. This implies that
the inhomogeneous regions present on the surface of the film
were the primary source for H⊥ broadening in the case of
thicker YIG films. Thus, the presence of secondary resonance
peaks in thicker films can be seen to arise from the presence
of inhomogeneities in those films.
On the other hand, in the low thickness range, the
H decreases from 30 to 5 Oe as the thickness increases
2800704
Fig. 4. H⊥ of YIG thin films as a function of acid etching time for
∼850 nm YIG film.
Fig. 5. H⊥ of YIG thin films as a function of acid etching time for ∼45 nm
YIG film. Inset: Dots–experimental data H⊥ . Lines–A/t fitting to linewidth
at low thickness range (<45 nm).
from ∼10 to 45 nm. Similar to our result, Liu et al. [10]
reported the effect of thickness on H in YIG thin films pre-
pared by RF sputtering and observed a decrease in H value
from 25 to 5 Oe as the thickness increased from 5 to 100 nm.
They have explained this phenomenon on the basis of
surface-assisted damping (such as magnon–phonon scattering,
two-magnon scattering, or charge transfer relaxation).
Sun et al. [15] performed an ion milling experiment on PLD
deposited YIG films to study the effect of etching time on
H and reported that the surface inhomogeneity is a possible
reason for H broadening.
To understand the origin of linewidth broadening in our
YIG films at lower thickness, we performed another acid
etching experiment on ∼45 nm films and the result is presented
in Fig. 5. It was observed that the H⊥ gradually increases
with etching time, i.e., with reduction in thickness, similar
to the result shown in Fig. 2(b). Acid etching has been seen
to reduce the surface inhomogeneities and hence the observed
increment in H⊥ value with reduction in thickness must arise
from some intrinsic phenomena.
2800704
Kuanr et al. [12] reported the thickness (t) dependence
of H in iron thin films in the range 2 to 30 nm
and have observed a decrease in the value of H with
increase of thickness. They have fitted their H to 1/t 2
curve. They have attributed this feature to be consis-
tent with a two-magnon process. We tried to fit our
experimental result to 1/t 2 for lower thickness films
(from ∼10–45 nm), but the fitting is not at all close to
experimental data and was far from satisfactory. Our exper-
imental data, on the other hand, showed a better fit to 1/t
[Fig. 5 (inset)]. Such behavior may be due to the anisotropy
field [12], [13]. In addition, in our samples, we get a large
value of anisotropy field (Heff = 4π Meff − 4π M S ) in terms
of 4π Meff evaluated from FMR measurement (shows a value
of 1930–2320 G) which is much higher than the bulk
4π M S value of YIG. The origin of such large in-plane
anisotropy field could be due to stress and is under detailed
investigation.
V. C ONCLUSION
The magnetic properties of YIG thin films with different
thicknesses (10 nm ≤ t ≤ 1440 nm) grown on GGG
(111) substrates by PLD have been studied by the
FMR technique and SQUID magnetometry. Our films showed
4π M S values close to the bulk value of YIG except for the
low thickness films (t ≤ 15 nm). For t > 45 nm films, the
linewidth increased with film thickness and surface inhomo-
geneity is seen to be the primary source for H broadening.
For t < 45 nm films, the surface anisotropy field may be the
primary contribution to H . The films showed a low HC value
in the range of ∼1.5–7 Oe, which is an indicator of good
quality YIG films. From the detailed analysis, it is evident
that the film thickness and surface quality play a significant
role in determining the microwave loss.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Australian–Indian Research
Fund. The authors would like to thank IRCC and IITB for
superconducting quantum interference device measurements.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 51, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2015
They would also like to thank Dr. R. Krishnan, Retired
Scientist, CNRS/Universite de Versailles–St-Quentin, France,
for his helpful discussions.
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