Structural and magnetotransport properties of antiferromagnet-BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films obtained by Polymer Assisted Deposition

OTAL, EUGENIO HERNÁN; J. RIVADULLA; R. RAMOS; AGUIRRE, MYRIAM; KIM, MANUELA LETICIA

Mainz

Congreso; Joint European Magnetic Symposia (JEMS); 2018

Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3, BFO) has been widely studied for its unique magnetoelectric properties at room temperature, such as antiferromagnetism coupled with ferroelectricity. It has been also shown to display various novel phenomena, e.g., an increased conductivity at specific ferroelectric domain walls, photovoltaic properties, and new structural phases in thin films. Understanding microstructure and phase evolution in multiferroic BFO thin films is an important issue, because interesting physical properties with practical applications are related to the microstructure. This microstructure is also related with the synthesis/fabrication of the thin film. In this study, we address the polymer assisted deposition synthesis (PAD), a chemical technique of deposition with high control of thickness and stoichiometry. This method allows to produce a high quality epitaxial thin films of BiFeO3 on SrTiO3. We present a detailed investigation on the atomic structure, morphology and microstructre of BFO/STO thin films based on studied by various transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopy techniques (in particular, with a probe Cs -corrector for atomic resolution in the latter case). Magnetotransport properties of the epitaxial films are also presented.