title: Electrospun bismuth ferrite nanofibers for potential applications in ferroelectric photovoltaic devices.
abstract: Bismuth ferrite (BFO) nanofibers were synthesized via a sol-gel-based electrospinning process followed by thermal treatment. The influences of processing conditions on the final structure of the samples were investigated. Nanofibers prepared under optimized conditions were found to have a perovskite structure with good quality of crystallization and free of impurity phase. Ferroelectric and piezoelectric responses were obtained from individual nanofiber measured on a piezoelectric force microscope. A prototype photovoltaic device using laterally aligned BFO nanofibers and interdigital electrodes was developed and its performance was examined on a standard photovoltaic system. The BFO nanofibers were found to exhibit an excellent ferroelectric photovoltaic property with the photocurrent several times larger than the literature data obtained on BFO thin films.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Materials Research Center, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Linfeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fei
authors.forename: Yongming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ruobing
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Haoshuang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Helen L W
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: bismuth ferrite; electrospinning; heat treatment; interdigital electrode; nanofibers; photovoltaic; piezoelectric force microscope