ABSTRACT
This chapter presents different effects of spin wave (SW) optics in patterned thin garnet samples. It focuses on the optical effects of SWs in micrometer yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films, investigated experimentally with aid of the Brillouin light scattering (BLS) technique and simulated numerically, and in nanometer films, investigated theoretically with aid of micromagnetic simulations. Recent fabrication of YIG films with nanometer thickness has opened new frontiers for magnetic studies and made new applications possible because of both the discovery of new effects, such as current-spin wave conversion, or the spin-Seebeck effect, and possibilities for high-quality patterning in submicrometer range, enabling research on SWs of short wavelengths. The SW refraction phenomenon induced by demagnetization field inhomogeneity was proposed as an explanation of the phenomenon of total nonreflection effect of SWs on the antidots line. The chapter discusses SW interactions with different geometrical objects and uses rules known from optics which are based on analysis of iso-frequency dispersion relation lines (IFDRLs).
