Photovoltaic Effect in 0.9BiFeO3-0.1YCrO3 Composite Thin Film Fabricated Using Sequential Pulsed Laser Deposition

We report on photovoltaic properties of 0.9BiFeO₃-0.1YCrO₃ composite thin film deposited on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si substrate by sequential ablation of BiFeO3 and YCrO3 ceramic target using pulsed laser deposition. The desired composition of composite was achieved by controlling ablation time of respective targets.  As confirmed by X-ray diffraction pattern the resultant films were found to be polycrystalline in nature, and composed of a mixture of both rhombohedral BiFeO₃ and orthorhombic YCrO₃ phases. The surface morphology of the as grown films was confirmed by atomic force microscope and found to be smooth and free from particulates.  Under the light illumination, the short circuit currents (I_SC) = 2.42 μC/cm2, and 0.74 μC/cm², and open circuit voltages (V_OC) = 0.4 V, and 0.32 V were observed in top-bottom and lateral electrode configurations, respectively. Beside this, large ON and OFF photo current ratio and fast decay time have been observed in both the type of electrode configurations. In addition, the interesting multiferroic properties in terms of saturation magnetization of ~ 15 emu/cm³ and the remnant polarization of ~ 7μC/cm² have been observed.