Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Y3Fe5O12(YIG) and La-doped YIG films were grown on the {111} GGG substrate using the PbO-B2O3 flux system. Pb, La incorporation and lattice misfit and annealing behaviors were studied. In the case of LPE growth of YIG film, lead ions from flux are substituted inevitably, and they play an important role in controlling film misfit. For a complete lattice matching, high supercooling is necessary in pure YIG growth, but this induces high defect concentration. In this experiment, La ions were added in the solution to sufficiently increase lattice parameter of the film grown under low supercooling. The concentration of substituted Pb and La were increased as the growth temperature was lowered and growth rate increased. The effective distribution coefficient of La was about 0.2 at a supercooling of 30 °C. The optimum growth conditions which bring about very small misfit were determined by measuring the misfit by double crystal diffractometer. Strain distributions of pre-annealed and annealed samples were investigated by triple crystal diffractometer.