Bendable Bi(Fe0.95Mn0.05)O3 ferroelectric film directly on aluminum substrate

Abstract With the rapid development of intelligent electronic system, portable, wearable, and smart electronics with excellent electrical performance and mechanical deformation are needed. This work presents a simple one-step way to construct a bendable Bi(Fe0.95Mn0.05)O3 (BFOMn) film capacitor by the assistant of aluminum metal substrate, which can be used as the substrate and bottom electrode simultaneously. The BFOMn film shows a polycrystalline structure and dense surface morphology. The BFOMn ferroelectric element shows a large remanent polarization (Pr∼68 μC/cm2) and saturated polarization (Ps∼80 μC/cm2) due to the low leakage current (∼2 × 10−5 A/cm2 at 150 kV/cm). A high dielectric constant of 196 and a small loss tangent of 0.05 are obtained at a frequency of 100 kHz. The film also displays outstanding thermal stability over a wide temperature range from 25 to 150 °C. More significantly, even the capacitor is bent to a minor radius of 4 mm, there is no obvious deterioration in polarization, and the film possesses excellent fatigue resistance (109 cycles). These findings are respected to promote the advancement of bendable BiFeO3-based ferroelectric memories for information storage and data processing, which will exhibit an anticipating future in next-generation smart flexible electronics.