Fatigue-free multiferroic Sc-doped BiFeO3 thin films processed by a chemical solution deposition method

Sc-modified (0.3 mol%) multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films (BFS) were synthesized on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates through a chemical deposition method. The effect of Sc doping on the fatigue and retention properties, and polarization switching with magnetic poling of the films were investigated. Through Sc-doping, the film exhibited marked improvement in fatigue behavior at least up to 10(11) cycles in comparison with the BFO film. The stable polarization retention property of the BSF film over the range of 1-10(5) seconds demonstrated that Sc doping in BFO improved the retention characteristics compared to BFO. This supports that Sc addition can reduce oxygen vacancies and charge defects in the BSF system which results in the excellent fatigue and retention properties. Magnetic field poling of 0.8T improved the polarization of the BSF film by about 48% which decreased slowly to similar to 10% after 14 days. These results suggest that the BSF film has potential in ferroelectric and magnetic devices applications.