Epitaxial (001) BiFe O3 membranes with substantially reduced fatigue and leakage

We report substantially reduced fatigue and electrical leakage in BiFe O3 membranes fabricated by releasing epitaxial (001) BiFe O3 films from the Si substrates on which they were grown. Fatigue-free switching behavior of up to 1010 cycles was observed for BiFe O3 membranes with Pt top electrodes, while as-grown films break down at ∼ 109 cycles. This is attributed to the low coercive field of BiFe O3 membranes and their being free from substrate clamping. In contrast, (111) BiFe O3 films exhibit significant fatigue at the same electric field. Epitaxial (001) BiFe O3 membranes with low coercive field are very promising for lead-free ferroelectric memory and magnetoelectric devices. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.