Epitaxial BiFe0.95Mn0.05O3 thin films on transparent La0.07Ba0.93SnO3 electrodes

• Transparent and conductive La0.07Ba0.93SnO3 films were used as bottom electrodes
• La0.07Ba0.93SnO3 films show an excellent optical transmittance and a weak metallic conductive behavior
• X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray absorption near-edge structure spectra analysis was used to characterize oxide phases
• The band gap of BiFe0.95Mn0.05O3 films was determined from the optical transmittance.

By employing conductive and transparent La0.07Ba0.93SnO3 (LBSO) films as bottom electrodes, epitaxial BiFe0.95Mn0.05O3 (BFMO) ferroelectric capacitors were fabricated on SrTiO3(0 0 1) [STO(0 0 1)] substrates by pulsed laser deposition method. The LBSO films showed an excellent optical transmittance in the visible range and a weak metallic conductive behavior, with the room-temperature resistivity, carrier concentration, and mobility of 1.223 mΩ cm, 5.54 × 1021 cm−3, and 0.923 cm2/V s, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectra analysis revealed that iron ions were present primarily as Fe3+ in BFMO films. The band gap of BFMO films was determined to be 2.63 eV from the optical transmittance of the BFMO/LBSO/STO(0 0 1) heterostructures. Pt/BFMO/LBSO/STO(0 0 1) structured ferroelectric thin-film capacitors showed well-saturated rectangular-shaped polarization–electric field hysteresis loops with the remanent polarization of 45 μC/cm2 at a measurement frequency of 1 kHz, indicating that the perovskite-type LBSO films can be potentially used in transparent devices especially based on all-perovskite heterostructures.