Temperature dependence of ferroelectric properties and the activation energy of polarization reversal in (Pr,Mn)-codoped BiFeO3thin films

We applied Vopsaroiu's model to (Bi,Pr)(Fe,Mn)O3 (BPFM) and Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) ferroelectric thin films fabricated by chemical solution deposition. The temperature dependences of the saturation polarization and the coercive field were measured in a low-temperature region from 100 to 200 K. The saturation polarizations of BPFM thin films decreased on decreasing the measurement temperature due to the polarization pinning effect, while that of PZT thin film was almost unchanged over the temperature region. The coercive fields of all the thin films were increased linearly on decreasing the measurement temperature. The activation energies for polarization reversal in as-grown BPFM, postannealed BPFM, and PZT thin films were 1.18, 1.25, and 0.95 eV, respectively. These results indicate that BPFM thin films have large activation energies for polarization reversal compared with PZT thin films. In addition, the postannealed BPFM thin film has a larger activation energy than the as-grown BPFM thin film.