(Tb, Cr and Mn) multielement co-doped BiFeO3 (BTFCMO) thin films were prepared by the chemical solution deposition method on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. X-ray diffraction, Rietveld refinement and Raman analyses revealed that a phase transition from rhombohedral to triclinic structure occurs in the multielement co-doped BiFeO3 films. It is found that the doping is conducive to stabilizing the valence of Fe ions and reducing leakage current. In addition, the highly enhanced ferroelectric properties with a huge remanent polarization (2P(r)) of 239.6 mu C/cm(2) and a low coercive field (2E(c)) of 615.6 kV/cm are ascribed to the well film texture, the structure transition and the reduced leakage current by the co-doping. Moreover, the structure transition is the dominant factor resulting in the significant enhancement observed in magnetization (M-s similar to 10.5 emu/cm(3)), owing to the collapse of the space-modulated spin structure. In this contribution, these results demonstrate that the multielem ent co-doping is in favor of the enhanced multiferroic properties of the BFO films for possible multifunctional applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.