Environmental effect on structural, magnetic, and dielectric properties of BFO nanostructure and its solar cell applications

Single-phase bismuth ferrite (BFO) nanostructure is an intriguing contender in ferrite materials due to high magnetization and polarization at room temperature. In this study, the structural, electrical, magnetic, dielectric, and photovoltaic properties of BFO nanostructure are presented under different environments. To inspect the impact of annealing environments on structure and morphology, the prepared BFO samples are characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Further, we examined the annealing effect on magnetic, electric, dielectric properties, and power conversion efficiency (PCE). The leakage current is decreased up to 4 times as compared to the reference sample, by reducing the dielectric loss. Besides, a BFO/ZnO heterostructure device is fabricated by using the graphene/ITO hybrid electrode to investigate the photovoltaic characteristics. The PCE is improved from 4.2 to 6.1% by using the hybrid transparent electrode composed by graphene and ITO and annealing in an oxygen atmosphere. Besides, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) with responsivity (R) of the heterostructure device is also enhanced. So, the perfection in the vital parameter of BFO nanoparticles evidently emphasize the prominence of the annealing atmosphere in BFO nanoparticles applications.