Strong magneto-optical effect of incongruent-melting Ce,Sc,Ca:GIG crystal with heavy Ce3+ doping

To achieve high concentration of Ce 3+ ions in Gd 3 Fe 5 O 12 (GIG) crystal, the structure of co-doped Sc 3+ and Ce 3+ ions was designed and the doping energy was evaluated by the first-principles density functional theory. Based on this, Ce,Sc,Ca:GIG crystals with centimeter size and good quality were successfully grown by an improved edge-defined film-fed growth method. The transmission, magnetism, and magneto-optical effects were investigated in detailed. The Ce-doped concentration as high as 18 at% results in the (Ce 0.54 Gd 2.41 Ca 0.05 ) (Sc 0.45 Fe 4.55 )O 12 crystal having excellent magneto-optical properties. Its Faraday rotation angle increased to about −1534 deg. cm −1 at λ = 1550 nm. Therefore, the excellent magneto-optical performances reveal that Ce,Sc,Ca:Gd 3 Fe 5 O 12 crystal has great potential to be utilized for miniaturized and high performance optical isolators in 1550 nm.