Probing the domain structure of BiFeO3 epitaxial films with three-dimensional reciprocal space mapping

• Main Authors: Luo, Z. L., Chen, Z. H., Fong, D. D., Huang, H., Zhou, H., Yang, Y., Wu, L., Zhu, C., Wang, H., Yang, M., Hu, S., Wen, H., Zhang, X., Zhang, Z., Chen, L., Gao, C.
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Material testing and characterization
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/98016; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/19667
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

High-resolution 3-Dimensional Reciprocal Space Mapping (3D-RSM) has been performed on mixed-phase BiFeO3 (BFO) epitaxial films on (001)-oriented LaAlO3 substrates. Our results demonstrate that 3D-RSM is an effective way to present a structural overview of the different BFO polymorphs, domain variants, and even the interfacial regions between coexisting triclinic phases. The dislocation-free boundaries between the triclinic phases revealed by these 3D-RSMs are believed to be responsible for the large electromechanical response found in mixed-phase BFO films. This study demonstrates the unique merits of the 3D-RSM technique for the structural characterization of ferroic films with complicated domain structures.