Chemical Solution Deposition of Single‐Phase BiFeO3 Thin Films on Transparent Substrates

Abstract

The production of high‐quality BiFeO3 thin films on cost‐effective transparent electrodes for visible light harvesting applications and devices remains a challenge. Here, the production of single‐phase nanostructured BiFeO3 thin films via chemical solution deposition (CSD) on transparent conductive fluorine‐doped tin oxide FTO glass substrates is reported. It is shown that BiFeO3 is of high purity using a variety of analytical tools and that the as‐obtained BiFeO3 thin films have a single‐grain single‐domain structure exhibiting ferroelectric switching under poling. The BiFeO3 samples show visible light absorption with a bandgap of 2.7 eV under all processing conditions. By changing the annealing atmosphere, it was possible to modify the photocurrent produced, which were (at 1.23 VNHE) 0.07 (O2‐annealed), 0.02 (air‐annealed), and 0.01 mA cm−2 (Ar‐annealed). This indicates a change in the mobile carriers available. The results show that it is possible to produce single‐phase BiFeO3 on a transparent conductive electrode system with controllable photoconductivity.