Epitaxial thin films of multiferroic Bi 2 FeCrO 6 with B -site cationic order
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-Philippe Carignan École Polytechnique de Montréal, Département de Génie Physique, Station. Centre-ville, Montréal, (Québec), H3C 6A7 (Canada)
Lina Gunawan Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research and Centre for Emerging Device Technologies, McMaster University, West Hamilton (Ontario), L8S 4M1 (Canada)
Catalin Harnagea Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) / Université du Québec INRS-Énergie, Matériaux & Télécommunications (INRS-EMT), Varennes (Montreal metropolitan area), Québec, J3X 1S2 CANADA
Gianluigi A. Botton Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research and Centre for Emerging Device Technologies, McMaster University, West Hamilton (Ontario), L8S 4M1 (Canada)
David Ménard École Polytechnique de Montréal, Département de Génie Physique, Station. Centre-ville, Montréal, (Québec), H3C 6A7 (Canada)
Alain Pignoleta) Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) / Université du Québec INRS-Énergie, Matériaux & Télécommunications (INRS-EMT), Varennes (Montreal metropolitan area), Québec, J3X 1S2 CANADA (Received 18 January 2007; accepted 21 March 2007)
Epitaxial thin films of Bi2FeCrO6 (BFCO) have been synthesized by pulsed laser deposition on SrRuO3 on (100)- and (111)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates. Detailed x-ray diffraction and cross-section transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed a double perovskite crystal structure of the BFCO epitaxial films very similar to that of BiFeO3 along with a particularly noteworthy Fe3+/Cr3+ cation ordering along the [111] direction. The films contain no detectable magnetic iron oxide impurities and have the correct cationic average stoichiometry throughout their thickness. They however exhibit a slight modulation in the Fe and Cr compositions forming complementary stripe patterns, suggesting minor local excess or depletion of Fe and Cr. The epitaxial BFCO films exhibit good ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties, in addition to magnetic properties at room temperature, as well as an unexpected crystallographic orientation dependence of their room-temperature magnetic properties. Our results qualitatively confirm the predictions made using the ab initio calculations: the double perovskite structure of BFCO films exhibit a Fe3+/Cr3+ cation ordering and good multiferroic properties, along with the unpredicted existence of magnetic ordering at room temperature. I. INTRODUCTION
Multiferroics, defined as materials that combine at least two “ferroic” properties such as ferromagnetic order a)
Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/JMR.2007.0273 2102 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 22, No. 8, Aug 2007 http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 02 Dec 2014
(spontaneous magnetic polarization that can be reversed by a magnetic field), ferroelectricity (spontaneous electric polarization that can be switched by an applied electric field), or ferroelasticity (change in spontaneous strain domain pattern induced by an applied
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