JOSEPH F. DILLON Jr.
Professor Adjunct of Applied Physics
E-mail: 73323.2162@compuserve.com
Phone: 1 (201) 539-1988
Fax: 1 (201) 539-9236

Prior to joining Yale in 1991, I worked in the Solid State Electronic Research Laboratory of AT&T Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill as an experimentalist specializing in fundamental and applied work on magnetic and magnetooptical phenomena in a variety of materials. I was the first to observe the transparency and magnetooptical (MO) properties of yttrium and rare earth iron garnets. These properties were exploited to study magnetic domain structure and behavior in various novel materials. The most familiar MO property is the rotation (Faraday rotation) of the axis of linearly polarized light on transmission through a magnetic material. The interaction between light and magnetization gives rise to many other MO effects of which several are useful in fundamental experiments as well as in technology. The rotation itself makes possible optical isolators that are crucially important in optical fiber communication systems.

I am also interested in the physics of magnetooptical properties, the characterization of MO materials, and exploitation of the MO effects to study magnetic phase structure and critical phenomena in various ferrimagnets and metamagnets. Recently, I worked on the observation of MO effects in high T_c superconductors. My interests have also focused on the design of isolators and related devices, on magnetooptic memories, and on a magnetically tuned laser.

In my research I collaborate closely with crystal growers, materials scientists, experimental physicists, and theorists.

Selected Publications:
"Observation of Magnetooptical Effects in Several High T_c Superconductors," J. F. Dillon, Jr. and K. B. Lyons, New Dimensions in Low Dimensional Electron Systems, H. Aoki, M. Tsukada, M. Schlueter, and F. Levy, eds. (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1991), p. 210.

"Magnetooptics," J. F. Dillon, Jr., J. Magn. Mag. Mat., 100, 425 (1991).

"Magnetic and Optical Properties of Rare Earth Garnets," J.F. Dillon, Jr., J. Magn. Mag. Mat., 84, 213 (1990).

"Magnetooptical Properties of Magnetic Garnets,"J. F. Dillon, Jr., Physics of Magnetic Garnets, A. Paoletti, ed. (North Holland, Amsterdam, 1978), p. 379.

Updated: 10/27/98