Epitaxial Multiferroic BiFeO3Thin Films: Progress and Future Directions

We write this article in honor of Professor Vitaly L. Ginzburg, truly the father of the field of ferroelectricity. This article serves as a review of the current state of research pertaining to multiferroic BiFeO 3 thin films. In this review we will delve into details of the growth of BiFeO 3 thin films and the use of piezoforce microscopy and x-ray reciprocal space mapping to characterize the crystal structure and domain structure of BiFeO 3 . We will also discuss the use of vicinal and asymmetric substrates to simplify the domain structure in BiFeO 3 . By simplifying the domain structure we can, in turn, control the ferroelectric switching mechanisms in BiFeO 3 . Finally we describe the basic ferroelectric properties of BFO films and discuss the critical issues needed to be solved in BiFeO 3 films including leakage, complex domain structure, coercivity, and reliability. Such results are promising for continued exploration for detailed multiferroic-coupling studies in the magnetoelectric BiFeO 3 system and BiFeO 3 , in turn, provides a model platform with which to realize the exciting possibility of electrically control magnetism.