Photoinduced changes in the hysteresis loop and photovoltaic effect of the magnetron sputtered epitaxial BiFeO3 film

Epitaxial BiFeO3 (BFO) film is deposited on the SrRuO3‐buffered (001) SrTiO3 substrate by magnetron sputtering. Here, we report the observation of photoinduced changes in polarization–electric hysteresis loop and photovoltaic effect of BFO film when it is illuminated by violet light of 404 nm. The remanent polarization is 57.4 and 65.8 µC/cm2 in the dark and in violet light, respectively, which is explained based on the reorientation of the ferroelectric domains. The open‐circuit voltage for photovoltaic effect is 0.28 V. The short‐circuit current density displays an almost 100 times enhancement, i.e. from 0.09 µA/cm2 in the dark to 9 µA/cm2 in violet light.