Leakage mechanisms of partially self-polarized BiFeO3 film

Partially self-polarized BiFeO3 (BFO) film was fabricated on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate by a metal organic decomposition process at 480 °C. The influence of soaking times on leakage properties was discussed. The soaking times considered were those that could keep the leakage currents being measured in a steady state condition during the leakage tests. The length of soaking time during leakage measurement should be greater than or equal to 500 ms to rule out the contribution of backswitching to leakage properties. Different leakage characteristics induced by the built-in negative field occurred under positive and negative fields. The "flat-band" feature of the leakage current curves may result from competition between domain switching and the switching of defect complexes. It is suggested that the "unswitched" mode should be adopted during leakage measurement in BFO films. Additionally, negative bias should be adopted in negatively polarized BFO films and positive bias should be adopted in positively polarized BFO films.