Orientation dependence of resistive hysteresis in bismuth ferrite thin films

Orientation-dependent resistive hysteresis was investigated for BiFeO3 thin films grown on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates by radio-frequency sputtering. The Child’s law in Vmax → 0 direction and the interface-limited Fowler–Nordheim tunneling in 0 → Vmax direction dominate the resistive hysteresis of BiFeO3 regardless of their orientations. However, the threshold voltage for the formation of the resistive hysteresis changes with different orientations because of the involvement of different polarization reversal, where the resistive hysteresis is easily formed at a low threshold voltage of ∼6 V for the (1 1 1)-oriented one. Therefore, it is an effective way to modify resistive hysteresis by tailoring the orientation of BiFeO3.