Room temperature ferroelectricity of YCrO3 thin films on Rh single crystals

•YCrO3 thin films exhibited a remanent polarization of 9 μC/cm2 at room temperature.•Weak ferromagnetism of below 150 K.•YCrO3 thin films have a larger domain structure than those of the PbTiO3 thin films.

We investigated the multiferroic properties of YCrO3 thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition on single crystal Rh substrates. The YCrO3 thin films exhibited room temperature ferroelectricity with a remanent polarization of about 9 μC/cm2 as well as weak ferromagnetism below 150 K. The piezoelectric force microscopy study revealed that the YCrO3 thin films have a larger domain structure than those of the PbTiO3 thin films although the YCrO3 thin films have a slightly lower domain wall energy. The large domain structures of the YCrO3 thin films are due to the significantly lower ferroelectric polarizations compared to PbTiO3 thin films.