Large-area engineering of ferroelectric charged domain walls in (110)-oriented BiFeO₃ thin films

BiFeO₃ films are potential candidate among ferroelectric materials that has been extensively studied and holds significant promise for applications in information storage devices. Growth parameters are key important for the fabrication of the low-dimensional ferroelectric textures, such as charged domain walls, especially when it comes to their deposition via Pulsed Laser Deposition technique. This study investigates the influence of growth temperature on phase structure, morphology, domain/domain wall textures in BiFeO₃ thin films grown on a perovskite single-crystal SrTiO₃(110) substrate. Crystallinity, strain effect, film thickness and ferroelectric domain/domain walls of BFO thin films were studied using X-ray diffraction, reciprocal space mapping, Scanning electron microscopy and piezoelectric force microscopy, respectively. Comparative analysis of several films grown at distinct temperatures ranging from 520°C-760°C, concludes that the large area of ferroelectric charged domain walls are effectively achieved at optimized growth temperature of 600°C, with the pure structural phase, well-defined strip-like morphology and two domain variants.