Enhanced ferroelectric photovoltaic response of BiFeO3/BaTiO3 multilayered structure

Abstract

The present work is based on the photovoltaic properties of multilayered structure of Bismuth ferrite (BFO) and Barium titanate (BTO) thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition technique on platinum coated silicon substrate. The multilayered structure possesses enhanced ferroelectric properties and shows a remarkable increase in photocurrent (from 1.56 × 10⁻⁷ A to 6.96 × 10⁻⁵ A) upon illumination with laser light of wavelength 405 nm at an intensity of 160 mW/cm². The values of short circuit photocurrent and open circuit voltage were found to be 0.3184 mA/cm² and −1.25 V, respectively, with a light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 0.067%. A relatively high efficiency calculated at 405 nm for the developed multilayered BFO/BTO structure highlights its practical application in ferroelectric photovoltaics.