Solution-processed BiFeO3 thin films with low leakage current

Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃) is an attractive multiferroic material that shows strong ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic properties. Nevertheless, producing high-quality oriented BiFeO₃ on technology-important platinized silicon substrates by low-cost solution deposition methods is still challenging. In this work, polycrystalline Mn and Ti co-doped BiFeO₃ (BFO) thin films were fabricated on platinized silicon substrates by a solution deposition method. PbTiO₃ nanocrystals were used as a seed layer between the electrode and the BFO thin films to induce a preferential (100) pseudocubic orientation. We show that the introduction of a PbTiO₃ seed layer strongly reduces the leakage current. The films show excellent room-temperature ferroelectric properties at low frequencies (300 Hz), with epitaxial-like remanent polarization as high as 51 μC/cm² and coercive field of 500 kV/cm.