Crystallization Dynamics of Amorphous Yttrium Iron Garnet Thin Films

TL;DR

This study investigates the crystallization process of amorphous yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films, revealing how substrate mismatch influences crystallization dynamics and providing a model to predict crystallization times for various conditions.

Contribution

It offers new insights into the crystallization velocities and activation energies of YIG films, and presents a model to predict crystallization times based on substrate and temperature.

Findings

Crystallization velocity depends on substrate lattice mismatch.

The model aligns well with literature data.

Crystallization times can be predicted for different film thicknesses and temperatures.

Abstract

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) is a prototypical material in spintronics due to its exceptional magnetic properties. To exploit these properties high quality thin films need to be manufactured. Deposition techniques like sputter deposition or pulsed laser deposition at ambient temperature produce amorphous films, which need a post annealing step to induce crystallization. However, not much is known about the exact dynamics of the formation of crystalline YIG out of the amorphous phase. Here, we conduct extensive time and temperature series to study the crystallization behavior of YIG on various substrates and extract the crystallization velocities as well as the activation energies needed to promote crystallization. We find that the type of crystallization as well as the crystallization velocity depend on the lattice mismatch to the substrate. We compare the crystallization parameters found in literature with our results and find an excellent agreement with our model. Our results allow us to determine the time needed for the formation of a fully crystalline film of arbitrary thickness for any temperature.