Preparation and characterization of highly transparent Ce3+ doped terbium gallium garnet single crystal

• Highly transparent Ce doped TGG (TCGG) crystal was grown by the Czochralski (Cz) method for the first time.
• The TCGG crystal exhibits superior magneto-optical effect compared with TGG.
• The TCGG crystal possesses high thermal conductivity and laser induced damage threshold for high-power devices.

A Ce3+ doped terbium gallium garnet crystal (TCGG) with 30 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length has been grown by the Czochralski (Cz) method. The cation distributions in the TCGG crystal and thermal expansion coefficient have been investigated. Absorption spectrum was evaluated in the visible and near-infrared region (VIS–NIR) at room temperature, which indicated the crystal had low absorption coefficient at 500–1500 nm. The specific Faraday rotation of single crystal was measured at room temperature in 532, 633, and 1064 nm. The Verdet constant of the crystal at 633 nm comes up to 164.3 rad m−1 T−1, 26.3% larger than that of TGG at 633 nm. The thermal conductivity and laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) were also measured. Overall, the TCGG single crystal studied here exhibits superior properties than the commercial TGG so far, therefore it has potential to cover the increasing demand for new and improved Faraday rotators in the VIS–NIR region.