 The researchers successfully grew epitaxial yttrium iron garnet, YIG, films on gadolinium gallium garnet, GGG, substrates with, 100, orientation using pulse laser deposition. The films had a single phase structure, low surface roughness, and low coarsivity. They also exhibited near bulk room temperature saturation moments, in plain easy axis, and damping parameters as low as 2.2 times 10 to the power of negative 4. These high quality YIG thin films are useful for investigating the origins of novel magnetic phenomena and magnetization dynamics. This article was authored by M.C. on Basley, Akelberger, D.H. Kim, and others.