Improved ferroelectric response of pulsed laser deposited BiFeO3-PbTiO3 thin films around morphotropic phase boundary with interfacial PbTiO3 buffer layer

(1 − x)BiFeO3-xPbTiO3 (BF-xPT) is an interesting material for sensing and actuating devices with large polarization near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) (x = 0.30) in the bulk form. However, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) grown (BF-xPT) thin films usually show high electrical leakage and, hence, saturated ferroelectric hysteresis loops are only obtained at subzero temperatures. In this article, we report on high room temperature ferroelectric polarization with saturated hysteresis loops in pulsed laser deposited (BF-xPT) polycrystalline thin films of compositions near the MPB with the use of a thin buffer layer of PbTiO3 (PT). The thin films possessed a perovskite structure with excellent crystallinity and exhibit the presence of a monoclinic (Cm) phase (MA-type) for x = 0.20–0.25 and a mixture of a monoclinic (Cm) phase and a tetragonal (P4mm) phase for x = 0.30–0.35 compositions. The thin films with composition x = 0.25 exhibit a monoclinic phase and yield very large room temperature ferroelectric polarization (2Pr > 80μC/cm2), perhaps the highest room temperature ferroelectric polarization and excellent piezoelectric properties in PLD deposited (BF-xPT) thin films of near-MPB composition. Furthermore, the evolution of ferroelectricity with PT content, studied using room temperature Raman spectroscopy, reveals a correlation with lattice dynamics and stereochemical activity of Bi. Piezoforce domain analysis of the thin films reveals that ferroelectric polarization and electrical leakage in the thin films are intricately related to the type of domains present in the samples, viz., 180°, 109°, 90°, and 71° due to differences in the nature of the domain walls.