Structure and electrical properties of BiFeO3 thin films fabricated using chemical solution deposition and annealed in air, N2 and O2 atmospheres

Abstract

We prepared BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates by using a chemical solution deposition method and then annealed in Air, N2 and O2 atmospheres. Improved electrical properties were observed in the BFO thin film annealed in a N2 atmosphere. The leakage current density of the BFO thin film annealed in a N2 atmosphere 3.2 × 10−7 A/cm2 at 100 kV/cm was three orders of the magnitude lower than that of the BFO thin film annealed in an O2 atmosphere. The remnant polarization (2P r ) and the coercive electric field (2E c ) values of the BFO thin film annealed in a N2 atmosphere were 28 C/cm2 and 672 kV/cm at a maximum electric field of 640 kV/cm with a frequency of 10 kHz. Also, we confirmed that the 2P r was fairly saturated at a measurement frequency of about 20 kHz for the BFO thin film annealed in a N2 atmosphere.