Local atomic structure of V-doped BiFeO₃ thin films measured by X-ray fluorescence holography

Abstract

BiFeO3 (BFO) is a multiferroic material that exhibits ferroelectricity, antiferromagnetism, and ferroelasticity simultaneously at room temperature. BFO holds great promise as a ferroelectric semiconductor because of its ability to alter conductivity by reversing its spontaneous polarization. Moreover, BFO thin films doped with transition metals such as Mn or V can modulate their conductivity. Nevertheless, the mechanism of this conductivity change remains unclear because the effects of dopants on the local atomic structure of BFO are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the local atomic structure around the Fe site in a V-doped BFO thin film by X-ray fluorescence holography. Reconstructed atomic structures from the Fe Kα hologram patterns revealed that the atomic structure stability of the V-doped BFO thin film differs from that of previously reported Mn-doped BFO thin films. The results provide important insights into controlling the defect structure in BFO thin films by dopants.

Bulk photovoltaic effect in ferroelectrics

“…The strong offcentering of the constituent atoms provides a large P s exceeding 100 μC cm −2 . 92) Owning to its attractive features, many researchers have investigated the ferroelectric, 93,94) magnetic, [95][96][97] piezoelectric, [98][99][100][101] capacitive, 102) and structural [103][104][105][106] properties of BFO and its solid solutions. The relatively small E g coexisting with the massive P s has motivated us to investigate their fundamental PV properties 4,16,22,56,107,108) and to develop PV devices.…”

Intermediate multidomain state in single-crystalline Mn-doped BiFeO3 thin films during ferroelectric polarization switching

“…Fluorescent X-ray induced Kossel line pattern measurement and inverse X-ray fluorescence holography (XFH) technique with synchrotron radiation were used for the in situ observations. XFH is a recently developed technique for acquiring crystallographic and local atomic structural information with element selectivity [27][28][29][30][31][32][33] . In the present paper, we demonstrate in situ XFH measurements under an applied electric field.…”