Monolithic Magneto-Optical Mach-Zehnder Isolator Using Laser-Annealed Iron Garnet on a Silicon Waveguide
Abstract
Stable silicon photonic circuits require monolithically integrated optical isolators based on magneto-optical garnet. However, crystallizing the garnet by conventional furnace annealing exposes the entire chip to high temperature and degrades the silicon waveguides and the metal electrodes. Here we avoid this degradation by using local laser annealing in vacuum to crystallize cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Ce:YIG), deposited by ion beam sputtering without a seed layer, directly within a silicon-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A 915 nm beam heats only the garnet region confined in micrometer-scale trenches, leaving the surrounding circuit and electrodes intact. The device achieves an isolation ratio of 13.6 dB at a wavelength of 1540 nm, corresponding to a Faraday rotation of 0.092°/μm, with an insertion loss of 20.4 dB and a propagation loss of 9.5 dB. Transmission electron microscopy reveals the crystallized Ce:YIG and a ~10 nm boundary region at the interface with the Si waveguide. These results demonstrate that thermally sensitive silicon photonic devices and magneto-optical thin films requiring high-temperature processing can be integrated by a high-throughput technique compatible with mass production.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{sugita2026monolithic,
title = {{Monolithic Magneto-Optical Mach-Zehnder Isolator Using Laser-Annealed Iron Garnet on a Silicon Waveguide}},
author = {Tomoya Sugita and Reona Motoji and Yuki Yoshihara and Dan Maeda and Hiroki Yamamoto and Hibiki Miyashita and Kazushi Ishiyama and Taichi Goto},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.20964},
eprint = {2607.20964},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20964},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Monolithic Magneto-Optical Mach-Zehnder Isolator Using Laser-Annealed Iron Garnet on a Silicon Waveguide
AU - Tomoya Sugita
AU - Reona Motoji
AU - Yuki Yoshihara
AU - Dan Maeda
AU - Hiroki Yamamoto
AU - Hibiki Miyashita
AU - Kazushi Ishiyama
AU - Taichi Goto
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/23
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.20964
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20964
AB - Stable silicon photonic circuits require monolithically integrated optical isolators based on magneto-optical garnet. However, crystallizing the garnet by conventional furnace annealing exposes the entire chip to high temperature and degrades the silicon waveguides and the metal electrodes. Here we avoid this degradation by using local laser annealing in vacuum to crystallize cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Ce:YIG), deposited by ion beam sputtering without a seed layer, directly within a silicon-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A 915 nm beam heats only the garnet region confined in micrometer-scale trenches, leaving the surrounding circuit and electrodes intact. The device achieves an isolation ratio of 13.6 dB at a wavelength of 1540 nm, corresponding to a Faraday rotation of 0.092°/μm, with an insertion loss of 20.4 dB and a propagation loss of 9.5 dB. Transmission electron microscopy reveals the crystallized Ce:YIG and a ~10 nm boundary region at the interface with the Si waveguide. These results demonstrate that thermally sensitive silicon photonic devices and magneto-optical thin films requiring high-temperature processing can be integrated by a high-throughput technique compatible with mass production.
ER -