Improvement of magnetization and leakage current properties of magnetoelectric BaFeO3 thin films by Zr substitution

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Abstract
We report on the synthesis of the magnetoelectric BaFe 1 − x Zr x O 3 − δ ( 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 × 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 BaFeO 3 − δ single-crystalline 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 μ B ∕ Fe ion, in contrast to 0.09 μ 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.