Influence of induced uniaxial anisotropy on the domain structure and phase transitions of yttrium-iron garnet films

The effect of induced uniaxial anisotropy on the properties and parameters of the domain structure and phase transitions in yttrium-iron garnet (YIG) films is investigated. Based on the measurements and the derived formulas we determine the difference between the magnetization and the uniaxial anisotropy field for each of the films. We have also measured the parameters of the domain structures and phase transitions of the films for the magnetization parallel and perpendicular to the projections of the 111] crystallographic axes onto the plane of the film. We find that films of pure YIG films grown in (111) are characterized by the existence of some critical value of the uniaxial anisotropy field. It is found that for films in which the uniaxial anisotropy field is larger than this critical value and films in which it is less than this critical value, such parameters of the domain structures as the ratio of the width of the domains to the film thickness, the orientation of the magnetization of the domains, the orientation of the domain boundaries, and the magnitudes of the phase transition fields differ substantially. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 2034–2041 (November 1999)