Great enhancement of Faraday effect by Pr doping terbium gallium garnet, a highly transparent VI-IR Faraday rotator

A highly transparent (Tb(1-x)Prx)(3)Ga5O12 (TPGG) single crystal was grown by the Czochralski (Cz) method. The grown crystal was characterized by x-ray diffraction analysis which showed the crystal belongs to cubic structure with high crystallinity. The optical and magneto-optical properties of TPGG are analyzed in detailed and its figure of merit as Faraday rotator has been determined at room temperature. The Verdet constant of TPGG at 632.8 nm was -182.43 rad m(-1) T-1, which is 36.14% larger than that of terbium gallium garnet (TGG). The thermal conductivity and laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) of the TPGG were also measured. Overall, the TPGG single crystal studied here exhibits superior properties than the commercial TGG so far, therefore it has potential to cover the increasing demand for new and improved Faraday rotators in the VI-IR region. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.