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arXiv · 2510.17672

Broad-Range Tuning of Ferroelectric Switching of LaxBi1-xFeO3 Epitaxial Films via Digital Doping using Off-Axis Co-Sputtering

Katelyn Lazareno·Christopher Chae·Becky Haight·Shams Jabin·Rachel Steinhardt·John J. Plombon·Siddharth Rajan·Patrick M. Woodward·Jinwoo Hwang·Fengyuan Yang
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Abstract

To investigate the scope of ferroelectric behavior in La-substituted BiFeO3 films, LaxBi1-xFeO3 epitaxial films were synthesized using off-axis co-sputtering on SrTiO3(001) and DyScO3(110) substrates with a SrRuO3 bottom electrode layer. A digital-doping deposition method was used to enable precise control and continuous tuning of La concentration in high-quality LaxBi1-xFeO3 films across a wide range of x = 0.05-0.60, which was systematically investigated using piezoresponse force microscopy. Robust and reversible out-of-plane ferroelectric switching has been observed up to x = 0.35, while films with x $\geq$ 0.37 exhibit no measurable ferroelectric behavior, indicating a sharp ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transition between x = 0.35 and 0.37. This represents the highest reported La concentration in LaxBi1-xFeO3 films that retains ferroelectric ordering, highlighting opportunities to engineer ferroelectric and multiferroic properties in complex oxide heterostructures.

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Katelyn Lazareno, Christopher Chae, Becky Haight, Shams Jabin, Rachel Steinhardt, John J. Plombon, Siddharth Rajan, Patrick M. Woodward, Jinwoo Hwang, Fengyuan Yang. 2025-10-20. Broad-Range Tuning of Ferroelectric Switching of LaxBi1-xFeO3 Epitaxial Films via Digital Doping using Off-Axis Co-Sputtering. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.17672

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