Epitaxial (001) BiFeO3 thin films with tetragonally stained structures and a c/a ratio of about 1.04 were fabricated on single crystalline (100) Rh substrates. The BiFeO3 thin film showed high remanent polarization (P-r) of about 91 mu C/cm(2). We suggest that this enhanced remanent polarization is due to a tetragonally strained structure with a c/a ratio up to 1.04 and the large stripe domain structure originating from high domain wall energy. Low leakage current was confirmed and the leakage current mechanism was found to be dominated by space charge limited conduction, which provides an opportunity for non-volatile memory applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.