Magneto-optical material, Faraday rotator, and optical isolator

摘要

It is an object of the present invention to provide a magneto-optical material containing as a main component an oxide that includes a terbium oxide and having a large Verdet constant at a wavelength in the 1.06 μm region (0.9 to 1.1 μm) and high transparency, and to provide a small-sized optical isolator suitably used in a fiber laser for a processing machine. The magneto-optical material of the present invention contains an oxide represented by Formula (I), TbxR1−x)2O3, where x satisfies 0.4≦×≦1.0 and R includes at least one element selected from the group consisting of scandium, yttrium, and lanthanoid elements other than terbium, at a content of at least 99 wt %.

主权项

1. A magneto-optical material comprising an oxide represented by Formula (I) below at a content of at least 99 wt %,
(TbxR1−x)2O3  (I) wherein in Formula (I), x satisfies 0.4<×<0.8 and R comprises at least one element selected from the group consisting of scandium, yttrium, and lanthanoid elements other than terbium, and wherein the magneto-optical material further comprises an additional oxide or compound including an oxide of an alkaline earth metal, a Group 11 element, a Group 12 element, an oxide of a Group 13 element, an oxide of a Group 14 element, a Group 15 element, a Group 16 element, oxides of a Group 4 element, a Group 5 element, a Group 6 element, or a compound of a Group 17 element, wherein a content of the additional oxide or compound is at least 0.00001 wt % but no greater than 1.0 wt %.