Lead palladium titanate: A room temperature nanoscale multiferroic thin film

The discovery of single-phase multiferroic materials and the understanding of coupling mechanisms between their spin and polarization is important from the point of view of next generation logic and memory devices. Herein we report the fabrication, dielectric, ferroelectric, piezo-response force microscopy, and magnetization measurements of Pd-substituted room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic PbPd_0.3Ti_0.7O₃ (PbPdT) thin films. Highly oriented PbPdT thin films were deposited on {(LaAlO₃)_0.3(Sr₂AlTaO₆)_0.7} (LSAT) substrates in oxygen atmosphere using pulsed laser deposition technique. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the films had tetragonal phase with (001) orientation. Surface morphology studies using atomic force and scanning electron microscopy suggest a smooth and homogeneous distribution of grains on the film surface with roughness ~2 nm. A large dielectric constant of ~1700 and a low-loss tangent value of ~0.3 at 10 kHz were obtained at room temperature. Temperature dependent dielectric measurements carried out on Pt/PbPdT/La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ (LSMO) metal-dielectric-metal capacitors suggest a ferroelectric to paraelectric transition above 670 K. The measured polarization hysteresis loops at room temperature were attributed to its ferroelectric behavior. From a Tauc plot of (αhν)² versus energy, the direct band gap E_g of PbPdT thin films was calculated as 3 eV. Ferroelectric piezoelectric nature of the films was confirmed from a strong domain switching response revealed from piezo-response force microscopy. A well-saturated magnetization M-H loop with remanent magnetization of 3.5 emu/cm³ was observed at room temperature, and it retains ferromagnetic ordering in the temperature range 5-395 K. Origin of the magnetization could be traced to the mixed oxidation states of Pd²⁺/Pd⁴⁺ dispersed in polar PbTiO₃ matrix, as revealed by our x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic results. These results suggest that PbPdT thin films are multiferroic (ferroelectric-ferromagnetic) at room temperature.