Influence of Oxygen Pressure on the Domain Dynamics and Local Electrical Properties of BiFe0.95Mn0.05O₃ Thin Films Studied by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy and Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy

Kunyu Zhao; Huizhu Yu; Jian Zou; Huarong Zeng; Guorong Li; Xiaomin Li

doi:10.3390/ma10111258

Influence of Oxygen Pressure on the Domain Dynamics and Local Electrical Properties of BiFe_0.95Mn_0.05O₃ Thin Films Studied by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy and Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy

Materials (Basel). 2017 Nov 1;10(11):1258. doi: 10.3390/ma10111258.

Authors

Kunyu Zhao¹, Huizhu Yu², Jian Zou^{3

4}, Huarong Zeng⁵, Guorong Li⁶, Xiaomin Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. zhaokunyu@mail.sic.ac.cn.
² School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Fuyang Normal University, Fuyang 236037, China. yuhuizhu1017@163.com.
³ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. jianzou@student.sic.ac.cn.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China. jianzou@student.sic.ac.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. huarongzeng@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. grli@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. lixm@mail.sic.ac.cn.

Abstract

In this work, we have studied the microstructures, nanodomains, polarization preservation behaviors, and electrical properties of BiFe_0.95Mn_0.05O₃ (BFMO) multiferroic thin films, which have been epitaxially created on the substrates of SrRuO₃, SrTiO₃, and TiN-buffered (001)-oriented Si at different oxygen pressures via piezoresponse force microscopy and conductive atomic force microscopy. We found that the pure phase state, inhomogeneous piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) response, low leakage current with unidirectional diode-like properties, and orientation-dependent polarization reversal properties were found in BFMO thin films deposited at low oxygen pressure. Meanwhile, these films under high oxygen pressures resulted in impurities in the secondary phase in BFMO films, which caused a greater leakage that hindered the polarization preservation capability. Thus, this shows the important impact of the oxygen pressure on modulating the physical effects of BFMO films.

Keywords: PFM; conductive-AFM; domain structure; multiferroic BiFe0.95Mn0.05O3 film.