Effect of oxygen pressure on the structural, electrical properties of Bi0.90La0.10Fe0.95Mn0.05O3 thin films and characterization for memory applications

Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a potential candidate for future generation of FeRAM due to its large polarization with additional advantage of being lead free. La and Mn doped BiFeO3 (BLFMO) thin films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition. Effect of oxygen partial pressure on the structural and fatigue properties were studied. It has been found that polarization of thin film is very sensitive to the oxygen partial pressure. The leakage current density found to be in the order of 10-7 A/cm2 at 200kV/cm. Ferroelectric polarization is 73 μC/cm2 and coercive field is 200kV/cm. Fatigue endurance test of BLFMO thin film at 500kV/cm shows films almost fatigue free after 108 pulses. Retention test also carried out and found that there is only 3% change in the polarization up to 105 seconds, thereby making BFO a promising candidate for memory applications.