Effects of Sm substitution on ferroelectric domains and conductivity in bismuth ferrite ceramics

• DOI: 10.1016/j.physleta.2019.02.021
• Publication Date: 2019-02-21T14:49:23Z
• Authors: Panithan Sriboriboon; Benjaporn Yotburut; Oradee Srikimkaew; Sartanee Suebka; Arreerat Jiampras...; Santi Maensiri; Worasom Kundhikan...
• Keywords: Piezoresponse force microscopy; Bismuth ferrite; Bismuth

Abstract The large piezoelectric coefficient and multiferroicity of bismuth ferrite (BFO) make it an attractive candidate for lead-free ferroelectric devices. However, large leakage currents have limited broader applications. Rare-earth substitutions in BFO have been shown to improve ferroelectric and magnetic properties. In this work, we employed piezoresponse and conductive atomic force microscopy to study ferroelectric domains in Bi1-xSmxFeO3 (x = 0–0.150) grown by the co-precipitation method. The combined piezoresponse and conductivity measurements can directly visualize the local ferroelectric domains under different sample bias. At Sm mol% > 7.5, Sm-substitution effectively lowers defect-generated conductivity. At Sm mol%