Structure and optical properties of BiFe1-xZnxO3 thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Multiferroic BiFe1-xZnxO3 (0 <= x <= 0.10) thin films were prepared on LaNiO3 coating Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction data confirmed the substitutions of Zn into the Fe site. The films are the dominant orientation of (101). Three A(1) and five E modes are observed in Raman spectra. With increasing x, the position of the Raman active modes shift to higher wavenumber, and the full width at half maximum becomes smaller. At the photon energy of 2 eV, the refractive index is 2.71, and the extinction coefficient is close to zero. The band gap increases with the Zn amount, which may be caused by Burstein-Moss effect. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.