Nd doping effects on the multifunction properties of BiFeO3

Abstract

Nd doping effects on the multifunction properties of BiFeO3 films, including ferroelectric, magnetic, and resistive switching properties, have been studied in this contribution. BiFeO3 (BFO) and Nd doped BiFeO3 (BNFO) films have been deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The Nd doping not only changed the growth orientation and surface morphology but also impacted the ferroelectric, resistive switching and ferromagnetic properties of the BFO films. Saturated hysteresis loops were observed in BNFO films with remnant polarization of 86.4♣μC cm− 2, while the pure BFO films show round hysteresis indicating obvious leaky characters. The magnetization of the BNFO films and that of the BFO films were demonstrated with remnant magnetization of 9.8 and 15.6 emu cm− 3, respectively. Both BFO and BNFO films show resistive switching behaviours. Additionally, the current density of BNFO was reduced two orders of magnitude and this will be beneficial for the reduced power consumption of the future memory devices. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterizations demonstrated that these results originated from the decrease of oxygen vacancies by Nd doping.