Effects of Sm and Mn Co-Doping on Structural and Optical Properties of BiFeO<sub>3</sub> Thin Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Technique

Abstract

(Bi1-xSmx)(Fe0.95Mn0.05)O3(x=0.00, 0.03 and 0.06) thin films were deposited on the quartz substrates by sol-gel technique. The results of X-ray diffraction patterns indicated all thin films had rhombohedral perovskite structure. Moreover, the Sm and Mn co-doping at A-and B-site of BiFeO3resulted in the structural distortion. Scanning electron microscope measurements exhibited that the uniform surface morphology could be obtained by co-doping and the average grain size of the films decreased with increasing Sm content. Furthermore, the fundamental absorption edges ofxBSFMO films showed a blue shift with the increase of Sm content which can be observed in transmittance spectra. The optical band gap of the thin films forx= 0.00, 0.03 and 0.06 can be expressed by (0.84x+2.62) eV, which is due to the Burstein-Moss effect.