Crystal growth and enhanced magneto-optical properties of a terbium aluminum gallium garnet crystal for Faraday isolators

Abstract

The rapid development of kilowatt-level lasers is in urgent need of excellent magneto-optical materials for Faraday isolators. In this work, a new component Tb₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ crystal was designed to meet applications in high-power lasers. A high-quality single crystal has been successfully obtained by the Czochralski technique. The Tb₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ crystal is verified to have high crystallinity with a small full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 43.2′′ and exhibits excellent uniformity, especially enhanced magneto-optical properties, exceeding ∼7–15% that of the traditional TGG crystal. These excellent attributes suggest that the Tb₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ crystal can be a promising candidate for Faraday isolators.