Grain size and stoichiometry control over RF-sputtered multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films on silicon substrates

This work reports the morphological and chemical characterization of multiferroic BiFeO3 polycrystalline thin films grown on Si(111) by RF-sputtering. Results are shown for a large set of samples and a wide array of experimental techniques, including imaging (atomic/piezoresponse force microscopy) and spectroscopic (mu-Raman, X-ray photoemission, X-ray diffraction) probes. Through growth and post-growth annealing treatment, a fine control over stoichiometry, grain size, grain orientation, crystal order and surface roughness is achieved. In particular, the grain size can be tailored from nanocrystals to large micrometric plates as a function of the annealing temperature. For the optimal stoichiometric sample, an additional X-ray absorption and magnetic circular dichroism analysis has been carried out, which provides high quality spectra comparable with epitaxial films and further proves the expected strong local antiferromagnetic order.