Rare Earth-Doped BiFeO3 Thin Films: Relationship between Structural and Magnetic Properties

Rare Earth- (RE-) doped BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films were grown on LaAlO3 substrates by using pulsed laser deposition technique. All of BFO films doped with 10% of RE show a single phase of rhombohedral structure. The saturated magnetization in the Ho- and Sm-doped films is much larger than those reported in literature and was observed at a quite low field as of 0.2 T. As for Pr- and Nd-doped BFO films, Fe2