Photoinduced changes in the hysteresis loop and photovoltaic effect of the magnetron sputtered epitaxial BiFeO sub(3) film

Epitaxial BiFeO sub(3) (BFO) film is deposited on the SrRuO sub(3)-buffered (001) SrTiO sub(3) 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 404nm. The remanent polarization is 57.4 and 65.8 mu C/cm super(2) 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 0.28V. The short-circuit current density displays an almost 100 times enhancement, i.e. from 0.09 mu A/cm super(2) in the dark to 9 mu A/cm super(2) in violet light.