SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECTS OF CR-DOPING ON MICROSTRUCTURE, INSULATING, AND FERROELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF BiFeO3 THIN FILM

Abstract

BiFe[Formula: see text]CrxO3 ([Formula: see text]BFCO, [Formula: see text], 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05) thin films were successfully fabricated onto Pt(111)/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate via a solgel process. The correlation between microstructure and insulating, ferroelectric properties of [Formula: see text]BFCO thin films are investigated. The leakage behavior for all the thin films is in accordance with the Ohmic conduction and FN Tunneling emission during low and high electric field region, respectively. Compared with the pure BFO, all the thin films with Cr[Formula: see text] doping possess reduced leakage current density by 1–2 orders of magnitude, with the lowest value approximately 10[Formula: see text] at 200[Formula: see text]kV/cm. Moreover, the 0.04BFCO thin film exhibits the maximum remanent polarization ([Formula: see text]) value of 29.8[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]C/cm2 with a great fatigue behavior, which could be ascribed to the absence of impurity phase and reduced leakage current.