Structure and electrical properties of -axis epitaxial thin films

C -axis epitaxial Srm−3Bi4TimO3m+3 (SBTi m , m = 5 and 6) thin films were fabricated on conductive LaNiO3 (LNO) coated LaAlO3 (LAO) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The structure was characterized by x-ray diffraction (including θ − 2 θ , rocking curve, and ϕ scans) and atomic force microscopy. The epitaxial relationship was established (001)SBTi m //(001)LNO//(001)LAO, [100]SBTi m //[110]LNO//[110]LAO when orthorhombic structure indexing was used for SBTi m . It is revealed that the films with odd m have a ferroelectric hysteresis loops whereas those with even m have collinear polarization-electric field curves. The microstructure background responsible for the observations was discussed. Our results provide further evidence that the c -axis polarization of Bi-layered oxides depends on the parity of m .