Dielectric and ferroelectric photovoltaic properties of epitaxial BiFeO3 film with La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 bottom electrode

In order to deeply investigate the dielectric and ferroelectric photovoltaic properties of BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films, the Pt/BFO/La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (LSCO) heterostructure ferroelectric capacitor grown on (001) SrTiO3 (STO) substrate is successfully fabricated by off-axis magnetron sputtering. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Phi scanning results show that the STO-based BFO and LSCO films are both (001) epitaxial structure. Although the BFO ferroelectric film exhibits an obvious dielectric dispersion phenomenon, a remarkable ferroelectric photovoltaic performance is obtained with open circuit voltage (V-OC) of 0.38V and short-circuit current (J(SC)) of 0.23mA/cm(2), respectively. With increasing test temperatures, V-OC decreases slowly and then rapidly, while J(SC) increases rapidly and then decreases. At a critical temperature of 80(degrees)C, the BFO ferroelectric film exhibits a faster photovoltaic response, in which the values of VOC and JSC are about 0.19V and 0.28mA/cm(2), respectively. Moreover, the energy band analysis indicates that a large work function difference (similar to 1eV) between LSCO and Pt leads to a strong built-in electric field in the BFO film, which is beneficial to separate the photo-generated carriers and improve ferroelectric photovoltaic effect. In all, this study not only shows that BFO is an excellent and environmentally friendly photovoltaic candidate material, but also provides a practical strategy for improving the performance of BFO ferroelectric photovoltaic devices.

Automated summary

This study successfully fabricated a Pt/BFO/LSCO heterostructure ferroelectric capacitor and found that the BFO film exhibited remarkable ferroelectric photovoltaic performance, with a faster photovoltaic response at 80℃.