Hybrid photocatalysts consisting of single crystalline BiFeO3 nanowires and laser ablated Au nanoparticles were synthesized by a functionalization-step-free solution process. The 1.0 wt% Au nanoparticle decorated BiFeO3 nanowires exhibit ~30 times higher photocatalytic activity for water oxidation than that exhibited by the parent wires during the first 4 h.

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The reverse co-precipitation method was used for synthesis of the pure phase multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) nanoparticles. Influence of different pH values on the microstructure and magnetic properties of the BFO nanopowders was investigated. Thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) technique indicated that the optimal temperature for calcination is 550°C. The phase formation and the...

We have studied the stability of domains and domain walls in multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films using a combination of piezoelectric force microscopy and phase-field simulations. We have discovered that a film-substrate misfit strain may result in a drastically different thermodynamic stability of two parallel domain walls with the same orientation. A fundamental understanding of the underlying phy...

The thin-film heterostructures or nanocomposites exhibit vastly different properties from those observed in bulk systems. Herein, a nanocomposite of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and BiFeO3 (BFO), the remnant ferroelectric polarization is found to follow nonmonotonic magnetic field dependence at room temperature as applied swept across 0–20 kOe on pristine sample. Bulk BiFeO3, contrast, exhibits...

For epitaxial films, a critical thickness (tc) can create a phenomenological interface between a strained bottom layer and a relaxed top layer. Here, we present an experimental report of how the tc in BiFeO3 thin films acts as a boundary to determine the crystalline phase, ferroelectricity, and piezoelectricity in 60 nm thick BiFeO3/SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrate. We found larger Fe cation displacemen...

The electric field control of functional properties is an important goal in oxide-based electronics. To endow devices with memory, ferroelectric gating is interesting, but usually weak compared to volatile electrolyte gating. Here, we report a very large ferroelectric field-effect in perovskite heterostructures combining the Mott insulator CaMnO3 and the ferroelectric BiFeO3 in its "supertetrag...

Control over ferroelectric polarization variants in BiFeO3 films through the use of various vicinal SrTiO3 substrates is demonstrated. The ferroelectric polarization variants in these films are characterized by piezoelectric force microscopy and the corresponding structural variants are carefully analyzed and confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Implementation of this approach has given us the abili...