Local Mapping of Generation and Recombination Lifetime in BiFeO3 Single Crystals by Scanning Probe Photoinduced Transient Spectroscopy

Carrier lifetime in photoelectric processes is the average time an excited carrier is free before recombining or trapping. Lifetime is directly related to defects and it is a key parameter in analyzing photovoltaic effects in semiconductors. We show here a scanning probe method combined with photoinduced current spectroscopy that allows mapping with nanoscale resolution of the generation and recombination lifetimes. Using this method we have analyzed the mechanism of the abnormal photovoltaic effect in multiferroic bismuth ferrite, BiFeO3. We found that generation and recombination lifetimes in BiFeO3 are large due to complex generation and recombination processes that involve shallow energy levels in the band gap. The domain walls do not play a major role in the photovoltaic mechanism.