Multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films: Structural and magnetic characterization

• Multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) thin film was prepared by sol–gel spin-coating method.
• BFO film w asdeposited on indium tin oxide substrate with a thickness of 180 nm.
• The film exhibits pure rhombohedral perovskite structure.
• High saturation magnetization was recorded for our film at room temperature.

BiFeO3 (BFO) film has been deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate by a simple sol–gel spin-coating technique. The crystal phase composition, surface morphology, topography and magnetization measurements of the BFO thin film were investigated using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. GIXRD analysis revealed that the film was fully crystallized and no impure phase was observed. Cross-section SEM results indicated that compact and homogeneous BFO thin film was deposited on ITO with a thickness of about 180 nm. Moreover, most of A and E-symmetry normal modes of R3c BFO were assigned by Raman spectroscopy. We report here that the pure phase BFO film shows ferromagnetism at room temperature with remarkably high saturation magnetization of 63 kA m− 1. Our results are discussed mainly in correlation with the condition of processing technique and destruction of the spiral spin cycloid at interface layers and grain boundaries.