4<i>f</i> electron–mediated compensated magnetism in rare-earth-substituted iron garnet films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Rare-earth-substituted iron garnet (REIG) is an intriguing material for enabling efficient ferrimagnetic spintronics. For potential device applications, it is desired to have a full chart of compensated ferrimagnetism as a function of the rare-earth elements, ideally in the thin-film form of different REIGs. Here, we show the systematic growth of perpendicularly magnetized REIG films (RE = $\mathrm{Gd}$, $\mathrm{Tb}$, $\mathrm{Dy}$, $\mathrm{Ho}$, $\mathrm{Er}$, and $\mathrm{Tm}$) with the same thickness of 15 nm, which is achieved by engineering the strain between the substrates and the REIG thin films. In particular, the evolution of compensated ferrimagnetism, including the saturation magnetization, and compensation temperature as a function of the atomic number (Z) of the ${\mathrm{RE}}^{3+}$ sublattice are studied, which is confirmed by element-specific x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements. Our work could contribute to the emerging field of ferrimagnetic spintronics by providing a variety of perpendicularly magnetized garnet films with the desired material parameters.