Dense nanocrystalline yttrium iron garnet films formed at room temperature by aerosol deposition

• We deposit yttrium iron garnet films at room temperature using aerosol deposition.
• Films are 96% of theoretical density for yttrium iron garnet.
• We report magnetic and structural properties post-deposition and post-annealing.
• Low-temperature annealing decreases the FMR linewidth.
• We discuss features of the FMR spectra at each anneal temperature.

We have employed aerosol deposition to form polycrystalline yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films on sapphire at room temperature that are 90–96% dense. We characterize the structural and dynamic magnetic properties of the dense films using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and ferromagnetic resonance techniques. We find that the as-deposited films are pure single-phase YIG formed of compact polycrystallites ∼20 nm in size. The ferromagnetic resonance mode occurs at 2829 G with a linewidth of 308 G. We perform a series of successive anneals up to 1000 °C on a film to explore heat treatment on the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth. We find the narrowest linewidth of 98 G occurs after a 750 °C anneal.

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