Highly Sensitive Switchable Heterojunction Photodiode Based on Epitaxial Bi2FeCrO6 Multiferroic Thin Films

Perovskite multiferroic oxides are promising materials for the realization of sensitive and switchable photodiodes because of their favorable band gap (<3.0 eV), high absorption coefficient, and tunable internal ferroelectric (FE) polarization. A high-speed switchable photodiode based on multiferroic Bi2FeCrO6 (BFCO)/SrRuO3 (SRO)-layered heterojunction was fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. The heterojunction photodiode exhibits a large ideality factor (n = ∼5.0) and a response time as fast as 68 ms, thanks to the effective charge carrier transport and collection at the BFCO/SRO interface. The diode can switch direction when the electric polarization is reversed by an external voltage pulse. The time-resolved photoluminescence decay of the device measured at ∼500 nm demonstrates an ultrafast charge transfer (lifetime = ∼6.4 ns) in BFCO/SRO heteroepitaxial structures. The estimated responsivity value at 500 nm and zero bias is 0.38 mA W-1, which is so far the highest reported for any FE thin film photodiode. Our work highlights the huge potential for using multiferroic oxides to fabricate highly sensitive and switchable photodiodes.