Ferroelectricity in hexagonal YFeO_3 film at room temperature

In this paper we report the leakage current, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the YFe O3 film with hexagonal structure, which was fabricated on Si（111） substrate by a simple sol-gel method. The leakage current test shows good characteristics as the leakage current density is 5.4 × 10^-6A/cm^2 under 5 V. The dominant leakage mechanism is found to be an Ohmic behavior at low electric field and space-charge-limited conduction at high electric field region. The P–E measurements show ferroelectric hysteresis loops with small remnant polarization and coercive field at room temperature.The distinct and switchable domain structures on the nanometer scale are observed by piezoresponse force microscopy,which testifies to the ferroelectricity of the YFe O3 film further.