Orientation-dependent potential barriers in case of epitaxial Pt- BiFeO3 - SrRuO3 capacitors

The leakage current in epitaxial BiFeO3 capacitors with bottom SrRuO3 and top Pt electrodes, grown by pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO3 (100), SrTiO3 (110), and SrTiO3 (111) substrates, is investigated by current-voltage (I-V) measurements in the 100-300 K temperature range. It is found that the leakage current is interface-limited and strongly dependent on the orientation of the substrate. The potential barriers at the electrode interfaces are estimated to about 0.6, 0.77, and 0.93 eV for the (100), (110), and (111) orientations, respectively. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.