Sol-gel preparation of La-doped bismuth ferrite thin film and its low-temperature ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties

Bi0.85La0.15FeO3 thin film was prepared on ATO glass substrates by sol-gel technique. The effect of La doping on phase structure, film surface quality, ion valence, and ferroelectric/magnetic properties of Bi0.85La0.15FeO3 film were investigated. La doping suppressed the formation of impurity phases and the transition of Fe3+ to Fe2+ ions at room temperature. Compared with the un-doped BiFeO3, La-doping also increased the average grain size and the film density, which resulted in the decrease of film leakage current density. The remanent polarization and saturation magnetization were enhanced significantly by La doping. The remanent polarization of Bi0.85La0.15FeO3 films gradually decreased while saturation magnetization increased with the decrease of measuring temperature within a range from 50 to 300 K.