The multiferroic epitaxial thin film YFeO3

•The YFeO3 film is successfully prepared by pulsed laser deposition method.•The polarization is larger than other multiferroic materials with the same structure.•The work helps in finding a route to achieve more excellent multiferroic materials.

In this paper, the YFeO3 single-phase film is successfully prepared on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition method. The X-ray analysis indicates that YFeO3 film epitaxially grows along the (010) plane and the element content of the film is Y3+:Fe3+:O2−=1:1:3. The magnetic data shows that the film performs a weak antiferromagnetic property. The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in YFeO3 film causes an additional canting of the antiferromagnetically ordered spins which induce the ferroelectricity. The polarization value at (010) direction is 15.06 μC/cm2, which is larger compared to other materials with the same structure at room temperature. As a result, the work helps in finding a route to achieve more excellent multiferroic materials.