Optical properties of LuFeO3 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

The LuFeO 3 thin films were successfully prepared by pulsed laser deposition on silicon and LaNiO 3-coated silicon substrates, respectively. The crystalline structure of the films has been studied by x-ray diffraction and indicated that all the films were well-crystallized. Atomic force microscope was used to characterize the surface morphology of the films and the surface was uniform and dense. Raman spectra measurements were carried out to study the lattice vibration modes of the films in the 200-1000 cm-1 wave number range. Polarization-electric field hysteresis loops of the LuFeO 3 thin films were measured at applied electric field. 1. Introduction Ferroelectric materials are used in modern electric devices, such as memory elements, filtering devices and high-performance insulators [1-4]. RFeO 3 compounds, belonging to the rare-earth orthoferrite, are a big family, where R is a trivalent rare earth cation. They have orthorhombic distorted perovskite structures (space group Pnma) [5]. They have been found a host of fascinating magnetic properties including canted anti-ferromagnetism and spin reorientation transitions [6]. LuFeO 3 (LFO) is one of the RFeO 3 families. Recently, the charge–frustrated system LuFe 2 O 4 and its dielectric and multiferroic characteristics have attracted much attention of the scientists [7]. LuFeO 3 can be seen the giant dielectric constant step [8]. Kumar [9] has prepared hexagonal metastable phase from undercooled LuFeO 3 melting with low oxygen partial pressure. In this work, the LuFeO 3 thin films were prepared on silicon and LaNiO 3 /Si substrates by pulse laser deposition. The structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were investigated.