An effective method for improving diffraction performance of magnetostatic backward volume wave-based magneto-optic Bragg cells by using an appropriately tilted bias magnetic field in YIG film plane

The universal magneto-optic (MO) coupled-mode equations for magnetostatic waves (MSWs) and guided optical waves (GOWs) under arbitrarily tilted bias magnetic fields are presented for the first time and, as an example, applied to the noncollinear Stokes interaction between the incident TE0-mode light and magnetostatic backward volume wave (MSBVW) excited by single-element microstrip line transducer in yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) film. Our calculation indicates that, for the case of magnetization parallel to the MSBVW propagation direction, the diffraction efficiency (DE) is equal to the mode-conversion efficiency of the diffracted lights (MCDE) and the calculated curve of relative DE for the MSBVW-based MO Bragg cell in pure YIG waveguide is in good agreement with the experimental data. In contrast, the diffraction performance can be greatly improved by optimizing the bias magnetic field and the DE gain can be increased by 6.3 dB in the tangentially magnetized film. The angular dependences of the DE and the corresponding Bragg angle upon the magnetization direction are also discussed in the paper.