Bismuth iron oxide, BiFeO3 (BFO), thin films were grown on LaNiO3-coated SrTiO3 (001) substrates by chemical solution deposition method with different annealing ambiences of O and N. Structural properties of the samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, showing the BFO layers have a columnar structure and pseudo-tetragonal phase structure. Extinction of the first-order diffraction was observed, which was due to the presence of antiphase domains in the BFO films. Nitrogen as the annealing ambience could increase the density of the antiphase domains in the films compared to O. Electricity measurements show that the samples of N annealing ambience have less leakage current than those of O. It was suggested that the existence of the planar defects in the BFO films could decrease the leakage current.

Observation of Antiphase Domains in BiFeO3 Thin Films by X-ray Diffraction. L.Wan, Y.Li, X.Meng, J.Sun, X.Yuan, J.Shangguan, J.Chu: Physica B, 2007, 391[1], 124-9