Incorporation of yttrium to yttrium iron garnet thin films fabricated by mist CVD

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films were deposited on c-plane sapphire substrates under atmospheric pressure by a mist CVD technique, and their chemical composition and optical properties were examined. The thin films deposited at 450 °C showed an [Y]/[Fe] ratio of 0.57, indicating the deposition of yttrium iron oxide, while the molar ratio of [Y]/[Fe] in the precursor solution was set at 1.5. A thermodynamic model was developed to explain the reaction paths of the YIG thin film fabrication process using thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) results. The model indicates that the decomposition rate of yttrium acetylacetonate [Y(acac)3 nH2O] was much lower than that of iron acetylacetonate [Fe(acac)3], providing a plausible explanation for the large difference between the composition ratio of the thin films and that of the precursor solutions.