Effect of pre-annealing and annealing temperature on microstructural and optical properties of multiferroic BiFeO₃ thin films prepared by chemical solution deposition (CSD)

BiFeO₃ thin films has been successfully grown on a quartz substrate using the chemical solution deposition (CSD) method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) used to determine the microstructure of BFO. The morphology and transmittance of BFO thin film were studied using SEM and UV-VIS. Deposition of the BiFeO₃ thin film with pre-annealing in air and variation of annealing temperature showed that the increase in annealing temperature caused crystallinity to be higher and crystallite size to increase. High annealing temperature results in a larger grain size and lower thickness. Deposition of the BiFeO₃ thin film with pre-annealing variation showed that BiFeO₃ with pre-annealing in air had a higher crystallinity compared with in O₂. The crystallite size of BiFeO₃ with pre-annealing in O₂ is greater than pre-annealing in air. BiFeO₃ with pre-annealing in air has a smaller grain size and greater thickness compared to preannealing in O₂. BiFeO₃ band gap with pre-annealing in air and variation of annealing temperature were obtained 1.4-3.5 eV. While the BiFeO₃ band gap with pre-annealing variation was obtained from 2.3-2.7 eV. (paper)