Multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films: Structural and magnetic characterization

BiFeO3 (BFO) film has been deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate by a simple sol-gel spin-coating technique. The crystal phase composition, surface morphology, topography and magnetization measurements of the BFO thin film were investigated using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. GIXRD analysis revealed that the film was fully crystallized and no impure phase was observed. Cross-section SEM results indicated that compact and homogeneous BFO thin film was deposited on ITO with a thickness of about 180 nm. Moreover, most of A and E-symmetry normal modes of R3c BFO were assigned by Raman spectroscopy. We report here that the pure phase BFO film shows ferromagnetism at room temperature with remarkably high saturation magnetization of 63 kA m(-1). Our results are discussed mainly in correlation with the condition of processing technique and destruction of the spiral spin cycloid at interface layers and grain boundaries. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.