Domain matching epitaxy stabilized metastable, tetragonal BiFeO3 on symmetry-mismatched c-plane ZnO

Abstract

We report the stabilization of metastable tetragonal BiFeO3 epilayer on ZnO(0001) surface. X-ray reciprocal space map characterizations show that the BiFeO3 film is of true tetragonal symmetry, but not the commonly observed monoclinic structure. The critical thickness of the tetragonal BiFeO3 is higher than 140 nm, much larger than that reported previously. Despite the considerable lattice mismatch and symmetry mismatch, tetragonal BiFeO3 can be formed on ZnO(0001) though domain matching epitaxy which is featured by anisotropic growth. We show that by taking into account the elastic energy during the initial semi-coherent growth, the tetragonal phase is lower than the thermally stable rhombohedral phase in total energy by 70 meV per formula unit. Moreover, local piezoelectric characterizations reveal a coercive field of 360 kV cm−1 and a piezoelectric constant of 48 pm V−1. The integration of tetragonal BiFeO3 with robust ferroelectricity on the platform of ZnO has potentials for all-oxide electronics applications.