Wideband magneto-optic modulation in a bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet waveguide

We present a tunable wideband bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi-YIG) waveguide magneto-optic (MO) modulator. High-speed current transients are used to switch the in-plane magnetization of the film, which modulates an 800 nm optical beam. Large bandwidth optical modulation is achieved by driving the device in a non-resonant mode that is well below the ferromagnetic resonance frequency of the film. The MO modulator has the potential of operating at bandwidths higher than 1 GHz by tuning the applied static magnetic field.