Influence of 100 MeV Au+ 8 ion on photovoltaic response of BiFeO3/BaTiO3 multilayer structures

Abstract

This work presents the swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation induced possible modifications in structural strain and surface morphology of (BiFeO3)BFO/(BaTiO3)BTO multilayer structures prepared by chemical solution deposition technique. Furthermore, the role of structural defects (induced due to irradiation) on the ferroelectric property and photovoltaic response of BFO/BTO multilayer structures having different number of layers has been studied. Significant modifications in the morphological and ferroelectric properties of BFO/BTO (two, four and six layers) multilayer structures due to induced structural defects were observed after SHI irradiation performed using 100MeV Au+8 ion with ion fluence of ~1×1012, 1×1013 and 3×1013ions/cm2. Ferroelectric photovoltaic response decreases with increase in ion fluence from 1×1012 to 1×1013ions/cm2 along with change in open circuit voltage from 0.41V to 0.23V, short circuit current density from 5.177μA/cm2 to 1.71μA/cm2 and Ion/Ioff ratio from 33.02 to 13.02. This study on effect of SHI irradiation on multilayer ferroelectric photovoltaic cell is important to understand the possible application of BFO/BTO multilayer photovoltaic cells in the regions susceptible to radiations. Furthermore, the study of perovskite solar cell performance in the presence of SHI radiation, is essentially required for the development of durable solar energy harvesters.