Optical band gap of BiFe O3 grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

BiFe O3 thin films have been deposited on (001) SrTi O3 substrates by adsorption-controlled reactive molecular-beam epitaxy. For a given bismuth overpressure and oxygen activity, single-phase BiFe O3 films can be grown over a range of deposition temperatures in accordance with thermodynamic calculations. Four-circle x-ray diffraction reveals phase-pure, epitaxial films with ω rocking curve full width at half maximum values as narrow as 29 arc sec (0.008°). Multiple-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry reveals a direct optical band gap at 2.74 eV for stoichiometric as well as 5% bismuth-deficient single-phase BiFe O3 films. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.