Yttrium iron garnet

Yttrium iron garnet, YIG short (English Yttrium Iron Garnet ) is a man-made garnet of the composition Y3Fe2 ( FeO4 ) 3 or Y3Fe5O12. The CAS number is 12063-56-8. This garnet has not been identified in nature. YIG is ferrimagnetic insulator, the Curie temperature is 550 K.

YIG shows a high Faraday effect, having a high quality in the microwave region, and a very small line width in the electron spin resonance. The material is therefore used in the microwave, optical, and magneto-optical applications, for example as a resonator in filters and oscillators to frequencies in the gigahertz range.

Single crystals can be produced by various methods. Thus, in the literature chemical transport reactions and gas -phase deposition are described with chlorides for the preparation of large single crystals of a few millimeters. A preparation according to the floating zone melting process, and even the Verneuil method is described. Optical quality single crystals of about 5 cm in diameter were also obtained from the melt solution.