Stripe domain structure in epitaxial (001) BiFeO3 thin films on orthorhombic TbScO3 substrate

Abstract

We have analyzed the ferroelastic and ferroelectric domain structure of high crystalline quality ͑001͒ BiFeO 3 films on orthorhombic ͑110͒ TbScO 3 substrates. Two domains were present in stripes separated by ͑010͒ vertical boundaries, with spontaneous polarizations in adjacent domains rotated by 109°. The striped morphology was caused by nucleation of only two ferroelastic domains on the low symmetry GdFeO 3 -type substrate. Domain engineering through substrate symmetry is an important finding for rhombohedral ferroelectric epitaxial thin films. The stripe pattern with vertical walls may be useful for extracting domain wall contributions to magnetism and electrical transport properties of BiFeO 3 materials.

Spin and lattice excitations of aBiFeO3thin film and ceramics

“…The spontaneous po- larization P in adjacent domains is rotated by 109 • and its direction is tilted from the [001] cub direction. 45 In our IR spectra, only vibrations polarized in the film plane are active. Since the ferroelectric polarization P is tilted from the normal of the thin film plane, phonons of both E and A 1 symmetries can be excited.…”

Epitaxial strain and electric boundary condition effects on the structural and ferroelectric properties of BiFeO3films

“…The same kind of stripe domain pattern was, however, seen for BiFeO 3 films grown directly on DyScO 3 (110) and TbScO 3 (110), and was attributed to the two different in-plane lattice constants of the orthorhombic substrates. 9,13,14 Recently tensile strained BiFeO 3 has been devoted a great deal of theoretical investigations, 15 however there are not many experimental studies to provide data to be compared with the theoretical predictions. In particular there are no reports about tensile strained BiFeO 3 films investigating the domain patterns.…”

Sub-band level-assisted photoconduction in epitaxial BiFeO3 films

“…1(f)) reveal an out-of-plane lattice constant of 3.96Åand 4.61Å, respectively. It has been previously shown that the BFO crystallizes in a rhombohedral structure on TSO, 15 whereas it mainly adopts a monoclinic structure (M c ) when grown on LAO. 16 The monoclinic structure of the BFO film grown on LAO substrate can be identified by the three-fold splitting of the peak from BFO (Figure 1(f)).…”