Improved photovoltaic effects in Mn-doped BiFeO_3 ferroelectric thin films through band gap engineering

【摘要】：As a low-bandgap ferroelectric material, BiFeO_3 has gained wide attention for the potential photovoltaic applications,since its photovoltaic effect in visible light range was reported in 2009. In the present work, Bi(Fe, Mn)O_3thin films are fabricated by pulsed laser deposition method, and the effects of Mn doping on the microstructure, optical, leakage,ferroelectric and photovoltaic characteristics of Bi(Fe, Mn)O_3 thin films are systematically investigated. The x-ray diffraction data indicate that Bi(Fe, Mn)O_3 thin films each have a rhombohedrally distorted perovskite structure. From the light absorption results, it follows that the band gap of Bi(Fe, Mn)O_3 thin films can be tuned by doping different amounts of Mn content. More importantly, photovoltaic measurement demonstrates that the short-circuit photocurrent density and the open-circuit voltage can both be remarkably improved through doping an appropriate amount of Mn content, leading to the fascinating fact that the maximum power output of ITO/BiFe_(0.7)Mn_(0.3)O_3/Nb-STO capacitor is about 175 times higher than that of ITO/BiFeO_3/Nb-STO capacitor. The improvement of photovoltaic response in Bi(Fe, Mn)O_3 thin film can be reasonably explained as being due to absorbing more visible light through bandgap engineering and maintaining the ferroelectric property at the same time.