Structure design of cubic Sr,V:CeFeO3 thin films with strong magneto-optical effect and high compatibility with Si substrate

This paper focuses on strong magneto-optical thin films that closely match the Si substrate. The orthorhombic perovskite crystal structure of CeFeO3 was optimized to be the cubic perovskite structure by doping strontium and vanadium ions. The cubic Ce1-xSrxFe1-xVxO3 (x=0.3, 0.5, 0.7) thin films with high quality and high growth oritentation were prepared on Si substrate by using RF magnetron sputtering method. Moreover, the birefringence effect, which may weaken the magneto-optical effect, should not occur in the cubic thin film. The calculation results based on density functional theory show that the increased electronic transition probability is attributed to the strong spin-coupling hybrid between Ce3+ 4f and Fe3+/V4+ 3d states. Magnetic circular dichroism ellipticity |ΨF| of Ce0.7Sr0.3Fe0.7V0.3O3 thin film is up to 4300 deg./cm, which indecates a strong magneto-optical effect. Therefore, the cubic Ce1-xSrxFe1-xVxO3/Si film with high Ce3+ concentration is expected to be a new candidate for integrated magneto-optical devices.