Polar properties of hydrothermally synthesized BiFeO3 thin films

Ivan A. Velasco-Davalos, Mathieu Moretti, Mischa Nicklaus, Christian Nauenheim, Shun Li, Riad Nechache, Carlos Gomez-Yanez, Andreas Ruediger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Multiferroic bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) has attracted considerable attention due to applications related to the bulk photovoltaic effect in which the direction of polarization determines the direction of the photocurrent. Epitaxial thin films are produced by means of techniques that usually require high temperature processes. The hydrothermal method can be seen as an alternative route to obtain highly textured thin films in quantities compatible with batch processing; nevertheless, the structural, dielectric and electric properties are generally affected by the presence of hydrogen and other reaction by-products. In this work, functional and highly textured BiFeO3 films were successfully produced on metallic SrTiO3:Nb (0.5 wt.%) (100) substrates via hydrothermal synthesis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were used to analyze the structural properties of the films. Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) and Photoconductive Atomic Force Microscopy (Pc-AFM) were used to determine their functional properties. We show the polarization switching and confirm the presence of the bulk photovoltaic effect for the first time in hydrothermally synthesized BiFeO3.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1081-1085
Number of pages5
JournalApplied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing
Volume115
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2014

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