  Multiferroic BiFeO3 epitaxial films with thickness ranging from 40 nm to 960
nm were grown by pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO3 (001) substrates with SrRuO3
bottom electrodes. X-ray characterization shows that the structure evolves from
angularly-distorted tetragonal with c/a ~ 1.04 to more bulk-like distorted
rhombohedral (c/a ~ 1.01) as the strain relaxes with increasing thickness.
Despite this significant structural evolution, the ferroelectric polarization
along the body diagonal of the distorted pseudo-cubic unit cells, as calculated
from measurements along the normal direction, barely changes.
