Very large spontaneous electric polarization in BiFeO3 single crystals at room temperature and its evolution under cycling fields

Electric polarization loops are measured at room temperature on highly pure BiFeO3 single crystals synthesized by a flux growth method. Because the crystals have a high electrical resistivity, the resulting low leakage currents allow us to measure a large spontaneous polarization reaching 100 microC.cm^{-2}, a value never reported in the bulk. During electric cycling, the slow degradation of the material leads to an evolution of the hysteresis curves eventually preventing full saturation of the crystals.