Reduced growth temperature of Bi6FeCoTi3O18 thin films by conductive bottom layers

• Growth and structural characterization of epitaxial Bi6FeCoTi3O18 (BFCTO) films.
• Effect of the substrates conductivity on the growth temperature of thin films.
• The films grown on conductive layers have lower growth temperature and larger magnetization.

The Aurivillius layered oxide homologous series attract wide interests due to their room temperature multiferroic properties. Unfortunately, the synthesis of such layered oxide epitaxial thin films has been a major challenge owing to the occurrence of growth defects and narrow growth temperature window. To obtain high quality epitaxial Bi6FeCoTi3O18 (BFCTO) thin films, the effects of insulating and conductive bottom layers were studied by laser molecular beam epitaxy. We found that the optimal deposition temperature for growth on conductive bottom layers is more than 90 °C lower than that on insulating bottom layers, which indicates the interface between BFCTO and conductive bottom layers has smaller interfacial energy than the interface between BFCTO and insulating bottom layers. The magnetic and ferroelectric properties of the optimized BFCTO thin films on insulating substrate and conductive bottom layers were studied. This study is important to control the growth of complex layered oxide thin films and exploit the applications for future room temperature multiferroic devices.