Domain structure and in-plane switching in a highly strained Bi0.9Sm0.1FeO3 film

• Main Authors: Yang, Yurong, Chen, Zuhuang, Chen, Weigang, Ren, Wei, You, Lu, Qi, Yajun, Zou, Xi, Wang, Junling, Sritharan, Thirumany, Yang, Ping, Bellaiche, L., Chen, Lang
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105797; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20915
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We report the domain structure and ferroelectric properties of a 32 nm-thick Bi0.9Sm0.1FeO3film epitaxially grown on a LaAlO3 (LAO) substrate. This film exhibits a monoclinic Mc phase, with its monoclinic distortion and anisotropy of in-plane (IP) lattice parameters being both smaller than those of pure BiFeO3 (BFO) grown on LaAlO3. Polarization hysteresis loops measured using a quasi-planar capacitor show an in-planepolarization up to 30 μC/cm2. Piezoresponse force microcopy demonstrates that a 180° in-planepolarization switching accompanied by a 90° domain wall rotation takes place after electric poling. First-principles calculations suggest the differences between highly strained Sm-substituted and pure BiFeO3.