Single-ion model of the surface anisotropy in YIG films: Axial D fields

This paper introduces a simple model to calculate the surface anisotropy in (001), (111) and (110) yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films. We use single-ion anisotropy model for the Fe3+ ions in YIG. Our model takes into account the contribution from the Fe3+ ions sitting in a very thin surface layer, and crystalline defects: substitutes and vacancies which behave similar to diamagnetic ions on the octahedral and tetrahedral sites of YIG. The calculated surface anisotropies are on the order of 10−2 erg/cm2 at 295 K for all crystalline orientations.