Magnetic and Electric Properties of Ba-doped BiFeO3 Epitaxial Thin Films Prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition

We report the structural, magnetic and electric properties of epitaxial Ba-doped BiFeO3 (BBFO), i.e., Bi0.75Ba0.25FeO3−δ, thin films grown on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 (001) substrates by pulse laser deposition technique. At oxygen partial pressures of 500 mTorr and a substrate temperature of 600 ℃, pure and epitaxial BBFO thin film is grown without any Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 impurities. Ba2+ doping in BiFeO3 seems to induce a suppression of the antiferromagnetic spiral spin structure and the change of Fe-O-Fe bonding angle, in addition to the creation of oxygen vacancies. Hence, the BBFO film shows weak ferromagnetism, but a leaky dielectric behavior at room temperature. Thermally-activated hopping is found to be the main conduction mechanism in BBFO with an activation energy of 0.52 eV. KCI Citation Count: 10