Sol-gel deposited (010) textured polycrystalline thin films of gallium ferrite (GaFeO3 or GFO) on n-Si(100) and Pt/Si(111) substrates are characterized for room temperature multiferroism. Structural characterization using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirms formation of single phase with nano-sized crystallites. Temperature dependent magnetization study demonstrates ferri to paramagnetic transition at ~300 K. Room temperature piezoresponse force microscopic analysis reveals local 180 degree phase switching of ferroelectric domains at very high coercive field EC, ~ 1350 kV/cm consistent with recent experimental and first-principles studies. Our study opens up possibility of integrating polycrystalline GFO in novel room temperature multiferroic devices.
@article{arxiv.1611.01128,
title = {Room temperature multiferroism in polycrystalline thin films of gallium ferrite},
author = {Monali Mishra and Amritendu Roy and Ashish Garg and Rajeev Gupta and Somdutta Mukherjee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.01128},
year = {2016}
}