The project intends to develop the research into materials with a high magneto-optical effect used as magnetic field sensors and optical isolators. Glass materials are of interest for these applications because they are transparent in the visible and near infrared spectral region and can be readily formed into complex shapes. One of the magneto-optical effects, the Faraday effect in glass will be investigated. The primary trend of the study is to develop glass compositions having a large specific Faraday rotation and low absorption in the visible and near infrared regions.

In the frame of the project, new vitreous materials containing transition, post transition and rare-earth ions will be investigated as good Faraday rotators that should satisfy certain requirements as: low absorption at the laser wavelength, low birefringence and high homogeneity.

Another direction of research will be focused on diamagnetic glasses as magnetic field sensors (via magneto-optical effect) with small size, immunity to noise and a high speed response. Both of these applications require temperature insensitivity over a broad temperature range. From this point of view, diamagnetic glasses are chosen for the sensing element with high stability and their temperature dependence which is much less than that of paramagnetic materials. The magnetic field sensors will be obtained as thin films by sol-gel and PLD methods.

The vitreous magneto-optical materials as bulk and thin films will be optical, structural and magnetic characterized (UV-Vis-NIR, FTIR, Raman, fluorescence spectroscopy, ellipsometry, testing of magneto-optical parameters and magnetic characteristics, thermo-mechanical parameters, scanning electron microscopy).

The novelty of the project proposal can be summarized as follows: 

• The proposal represents a first attempt to perform aluminophosphate glasses containing pairs of transition (Fe, Mn) and post-transition ions (Tl⁺, Sn²⁺, Pb²⁺, Sb³⁺, Bi³⁺) as well as pairs of rare-earth ions that should have pre-established properties as function of end-usage areas
• Manufacturing and processing of MOBGRE (magneto-optical bulk glass doped with rare-earth ions), MOBGTPT (magneto-optical bulk glass doped with transition and post-transition ions and MOVTFRETPT (magneto-optical thin films doped with rare-earth, transition and post-transition ions), design of their appropiate structures, materials selection, understanding of their behaviour and capability to be used as optical rotators and magnetic field sensors 

• Our proposal aims to initiate a global, transdisciplinary, unitary approach of predictive design of properties/structure for MOBGRE, MOBGTPT and MOVTFRETPT materials 

• The project proposes a progressive approach in the field of physics and chemistry of oxide materials