BiFeO3 thin films of (1 1 1)-orientation deposited on SrRuO3 buffered Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si(1 0 0) substrates Original Research Article

BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films of varying degrees of (1 1 1) orientation were successfully grown on SrRuO3-buffered Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si(1 0 0) substrates by off-axis radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. They demonstrate much enhanced ferroelectric behavior, including a much enhanced remnant polarization (2Pr ∼ 197.1 μC cm−2 at 1 kHz) measured by positive-up negative-down (PUND), at an optimized deposition temperature of 590 °C. The effects of film deposition temperature on the degree of (1 1 1) orientation, film texture, ferroelectric behavior, leakage current and fatigue endurance of the BFO thin films were systematically investigated. While the degree of (1 1 1) orientation is optimized at 590 °C, the defect concentration in the film increases steadily with increasing deposition temperature, as demonstrated by the dependence of leakage behavior on the deposition temperature. The polarization behavior is shown to strongly depend on the degree of (1 1 1) orientation for the BFO thin film. Oxygen vacancies are shown to involve in the conduction and dielectric relaxation of the BFO thin films deposited at different temperatures, as demonstrated by their dielectric and conduction behavior as a function of both temperature (in the range 294–514 K) and frequency (in the range 10−1–106 Hz).