Study of Electronic Performance of Ferroelectric Materials for Potential Application in Diode Based Devices

Abstract

Bismuth ferrites that are doped with rare-earth and processed by sol-gel method with citric acid as a chelating agent shows a greatly enhanced ferroelectric behavior thus making these materials appropriate for diode based applications. Gadolinium, yttrium, and samarium are examples of rare-earth elements that, when added to bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃), enhance its physical properties. The doping of Gadolinium improves bandwidth and decreases resistance, while yttrium ensures that polarization is not lost and the device stays functional regardless of frequency. On the other hand, samarium-doped bismuth ferrite has proliferated the market with its great ferroelectricity, lower leakage current and quick charge transport mechanism all integrated in it. Correlating its absorption peak of UV-Visible light at 279 nm, with a bandgap of 2.6 eV, development in devices that use light such as LED will not be a challenge, moreover, its I-V characteristic give rectifying action which is necessary for diodes operation. These results accentuate the potential of rare-earth-doped bismuth ferrites, particularly samarium-doped variants, in developments of devices such as memory units, photodiodes and devices that utilize light in an efficient manner.