Local Piezoresponse and Electrical Behavior of Multiferroic BiFe_0.95Mn_0.05O₃ Epitaxial Thin Films Deposited Under Different Oxygen Pressure

Abstract

Multiferroic BiFe_0.95Mn_0.05O₃ (BFMO) epitaxial thin films were grown on SrRuO₃, SrTiO₃ and TiN-buffered (001)-oriented Si substrates under different oxygen pressure by pulsed laser deposition. The influence of oxygen pressure on the microstructures, domain configurations and their local piezoresponse and electrical behaviors were investigated by the piezoresponse force microcopy and conductive atomic force microscopy. BFMO thin film at low oxygen pressure was found to demonstrate pure phase state, inhomogeneous piezoresponse and low leakage behavior with diode-like behavior, while high oxygen pressure leads to impurity Bi₂O₃ phase-enclosed BFMO films with higher leakage current above 2 nA, revealing the importance of the oxygen pressure in governing the physical properties of BFMO films.

Keywords:

• Multiferroic BFMO films
• PFM
• oxygen pressure

Funding

This work is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant No 2012CB933004 and 2015CB654605, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No 51121064, and the Nanotechnology Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Committee under Grant No 11nm0502800.