Integration of BiFeO3 thin films on Si wafer via a simple sol–gel method

Integration of BiFeO3 (BFO) films on Si substrate is desirable from an application point of view. The growth of (110)-textured BFO thin films with high quality on Si(100) substrate was realized by a seeding technique via a simple sol–gel method. Obviously switchable ferroelectric domains were observed, and in the meantime, the BFO films also exhibited a weak magnetization which somewhat showed dependence on the film thickness. Such an integration of the BFO films on Si constructed a metal/ferroelectric/insulator/semiconductor structure, which presented a memory feature as evidenced by capacitance–voltage hysteresis.