Preparation of epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films on Si(001) substrates by pulsed electron deposition

To achieve the epitaxial thin films deposition, it is necessary to use properly oriented substrates, with or without buffer layers, matching the lattice parameters of the epitaxial thin film we want to grow. In this work, the deposition of epitaxial Bi2SiO5(200) and BiFeO3(001) thin films on Si(001) substrates by pulsed electron deposition (PED) technique is reported without special substrate preparation. The deposition of epitaxial BSO(200) and T-BFO(001) directly onto Si(001) substrates during a single target deposition process is relevant and presents enormous potential to reduce costs and improve practicality, interface quality and BFO integration efficiency with Si(001) substrates.