Role of Ba and Ti co-doping in modifying the structural, electrical and magnetic properties of LaFeO3 films

In this communication, we report the results of studies on the effect of Ba and Ti co-doping on the structural, electrical, transport and magnetic properties of nanostructured LaFeO3 films grown on conducting LaNiO3 (LNO) buffer layer deposited on LaAlO3 (LAO) substrate. The structural property investigations on (La1-xBax)(Fe1-xTix)O3 (LBFT); x = 0.0–0.5 films, carried out using X-ray diffraction measurements, revealed the single phasic behaviour of all the films with the compressive strain varying with the doping. Surface morphology studied using atomic force microscopy, show the presence of fine granular surface roughness < 1 nm while the interface grain morphology study using cross-sectional SEM study, reveal the grain mixing of LNO and LBFT layers at the interface region. Modifications in the dielectric behaviour of LBFT/LNO heterostructure with Ba and Ti co-doping have been discussed in light of the hopping of charge carriers and interface mixing at LBFT/LNO layers. Observation of partially saturated ferroelectric loop in films doped with higher concentrations of Ba and Ti, may be attributed to the formation of non-centrosymmetric structure. In addition, the magnetization measurements on the Ba and Ti co-doped LBFT films depict the doping concentration dependent magnetic behaviour.