Effect of orientation on polarization switching and fatigue of Bi(3.15)Nd(0.85)Ti(2.99)Mn(0.01)O(12) thin films at both low and elevated temperatures

Bi(3.15)Nd(0.85)Ti(2.99)Mn(0.01)O(12) (BNTM) thin films with (200)-orientations, (117)-orientations, and mixed-orientations were prepared by sol-gel methods. The influence of orientations on polarization fatigue behaviors of BNTM thin films were systematically investigated at both low and elevated temperatures. It was found that the changed trends of the polarization fatigue of (200)-oriented and (117)-oriented BNTM thin films at elevated temperatures were opposite. The fatigue properties become exacerbated for the (200)-oriented ones and become improved for the (117)-oriented ones, while the reduction of remanent polarization first decreases and then increases for the mixed-oriented ones. It can be assumed that the different roles played by domain walls and interface layer with increasing T in these thin films have caused such differences, which was certified by the lower activation energies (0.12–0.13 eV) of (200)-oriented BNTM thin films compared to those of BNTM thin films (0.17–0.31 eV) with other orientations through the temperature-dependent impedance spectra analysis. With the aid of piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), the non-neutral tail-to-tail or head-to-head polarization configurations with greater probabilities for (117)-oriented and mixed-oriented thin films were found, while a majority of the neutral head-to-tail polarization configurations can be observed for (200)-oriented ones.