Improvement of magnetization and leakage current properties of magnetoelectric BaFeO3 thin films by Zr substitution -: art. no. 082902

We report on the synthesis of the magnetoelectric BaFe1-xZrxO3-delta (x = 0.5 and 0.7) single-crystalline films whose magnetic and leakage properties have been greatly improved. The films were found to be excellent insulators, up to the leakage current density of about 1.1 x 10(-5) A/cm(2) at the bias electric field of 150 kV/cm for the x=0.7 sample. This is much less than 10(-2) of that for the BaFeO3-delta single-crystal line film, which means that the leakage current properties have been distinctly improved by zirconium substitution. As for the magnetic properties, the hysteresis loops measured at 5 K for the x=0.7 samples apparently show huge saturation magnetization of 0.98 mu(B)/Fe ion, in contrast to 0.09 mu(B)/Fe ion for the x=0.5 sample. This implies that the magnetic ordering for the x=0.7 sample has been greatly enhanced, possibly due to the ferromagnetic spin alignment of Fe ions. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.