Magneto-Optics of Dy3+ Ion in Low-Symmetric Orthoaluminate Structure
Abstract
Magnetic susceptibility and the Faraday effect in orthorhombic DyAlO3 single crystals were studied along the crystallographic b-axis, the axis of easy magnetization, in a temperature range 78–300 K. The Faraday rotation was measured on the basis of the temperature and spectral dependencies of the rotation angles θ of the major axis of the ellipse of light radiation polarization in a wavelength range 440–750 nm. At a wavelength of 506 nm, the dependence of the Verdet constant V on the magnetic susceptibility χM was observed to be linear in a temperature range 85–300 K, and the paramagnetic Verdet constant Cp was calculated. A comparative analysis of the constants Cp and the effective frequencies ω0 of allowed transitions in cubic R3Al5O12 garnets and RAlO3 (R = Tb3+, Dy3+) orthoaluminate crystals was carried out in terms of the local site symmetry for rare-earth ions. The possibility of practical magneto-optical applications of the DyAlO3 crystals is briefly discussed.