Piezoelectric domains in BiFeO3 films grown via MOCVD: Structure/property relationship

Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) has been applied to the fabrication of BiFeO3 on dielectric SrTiO3 and conducting SrTiO3:Nb (100) substrates. Films have been deposited using a mixed bi-metallic source, consisting of Bi(phenyl)(3) and Fe(tmhd)(3), (phenyl = -C6H5, H-tmhd = 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptandione) precursor mixture. The chemical, structural and morphological characterizations of films have been carried out by energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Local piezoelectric properties have been investigated by piezoresponce force microscopy (PFM) and piezoelectric force spectroscopy (PFS). Structural and morphological characterizations point to the formation of homogeneous and flat surfaces for BiFeO3 films. Different ferroelectric/piezoelectric domains have been observed depending on the structure/morphology of the samples. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.