Multiferroic properties and ferroelectric domain structures of Yb-doped BiFeO3 thin films on glass substrates

We investigated the growth characteristics and multiferroic properties of BiFeO3 (BFO) and Yb-doped BiFeO3 (Bi0.85Yb0.15FeO3, YBFO) thin films grown on Pt/Ta/glass substrates. X-ray diffraction experiments showed that both BFO and YBFO thin films had preferentially (111)-oriented polycrystalline structures. Yb doping of BFO thin films led to enhanced multiferroic properties in terms of the ferroelectricity (remanent polarization of about 41.5 mu C/cm(2)) and ferromagnetism (remanent magnetization of about 1.91 emu/cm(3)). According to piezo response force microscopy experiments, the YBFO thin films possessed larger ferroelectric domain structures than the BFO thin films due to the higher domain wall energy of the YBFO thin films.