Photovoltage from ferroelectric domain walls in BiFeO3

Abstract

We calculate the component of the photovoltage in bismuth ferrite that is generated by ferroelectric domain walls, using first-principles methods, in order to compare its magnitude to the experimentally measured photovoltage. We find that excitons at the ferroelectric domain walls form an electric dipole layer resulting in a domain-wall driven photovoltage. This is of the same order of magnitude as the experimentally measured one, but only if the carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths are larger than previously assumed.