Influence of process-induced stress on multiferroic properties of pulse laser deposited Bi0.7Dy0.3FeO3 thin films

Bi0.7Dy0.3FeO3 films that are grown on a Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate by the pulsed laser deposition technique exhibit the coexistence of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric ordering at room temperature. Remarkably the removal of La from Bi0.6La0.1Dy0.3FeO3 (reported earlier) has helped us to enhance magnetic properties to a large extent while keeping the ferroelectric properties of the same order and the leakage current further reduced. Magnetic anisotropy developed non-linearly with the thickness of the films could be correlated with internal stress randomly developed during the growth process. The arbitrary change in the lattice cell parameter c with the thickness of the film also seems to be influenced by the process-induced stress. The saturation polarization (Ps) values scale with the c parameter. The information obtained by this study would be significantly useful while integrating innovative devices using such advanced multiferroic thin films.