High-quality single-crystalline Europium iron garnet films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy by sputtering

We demonstrate the high-quality europium iron garnet (EuIG) thin films with strain-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) grown on GGG (001) using an off-axis sputtering technique. Our thin film samples exhibit an extremely smooth, particle-free surface with root-mean-square roughness as low as 0.1 nm. High-resolution synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction analysis revealed excellent crystallinity of the films and the reciprocal lattice mapping (RSM) showed the film is lattice matched to the substrate without strain relaxation. By adjusting the Eu/Fe composition ratio, we are able to fine-tune the magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization (M_S), coercive field (H_C), and strength of PMA field (H_⊥). The relative orientations of the magnetic moments of the cations were probed by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurement at Eu M_{4, 5} and Fe L_{3, 4} absorption edges. Finally, we demonstrate the current-induced magnetization switching in Pt/EuIG structure with a low critical switching current density of 3.5×10⁶ A/cm², showing great potential for low-dissipation spintronic devices.