Crystal Growth and Characterizations of Highly Oriented BiFeO[sub 3] Thin Films

Bi Fe O 3 (BFO) films of pure perovskite phase were deposited on Pt ∕ Ti O x ∕ Si O 2 ∕ Si (Pt), La Ni O 3 ∕ Pt ∕ Ti O x ∕ Si O 2 ∕ Si (LNO), and Ba Pb O 3 ∕ Pt ∕ Ti O x ∕ Si O 2 ∕ Si (BPO) substrates by rf magnetron sputtering. The BFO film was grown with random orientations on Pt whereas highly (100)-oriented and (111)-oriented ones were obtained on LNO and BPO, respectively. The influence of the bottom electrode on crystal growth, surface topography, leakage behavior, dielectric and ferroelectric properties was investigated. Twice remnant polarizations (2Pr) and coercive fields (2Ec) of the (100)-oriented BFO film were measured to be about 100 μ C ∕ cm 2 and 596 kV ∕ cm , while those of (111)-oriented ones were approximately 205 μ C ∕ cm 2 and 675 kV ∕ cm .