Laser ablation preparation and property of bismuth-layer-structured SrBi2Ta2Ta2O9 and Bi4Ti3O12 ferroelectric thin films

Abstract

Bismuth-layer-structured ferroelectric thin films, SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ and Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂, have been prepared by laser ablation method on both Pt sheets and Si wafers at low temperatures of 400 ～ 500°C. These thin films have been characterized by XRD, XPS, AFM, C-V, D-E hysteresis and J-V measurement. SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ thin films have a good (105) preferential orientation, and Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films have (117) and c-axis orientation on these substrates. Ferroelectric film-SiO₂-Si structures show good C-V hysteresis curve owing to Si surface potential controlled by the D-E hysteresis. D-E hysteresis is obtained in Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin film prepared on Pt sheet, and the remnant polarization and the coercive force are 7.5 μC/cm² and 72 kV/cm, respectively.     

Properties of Chemical Solution Deposited Polycrystalline Neodymium-Modified Bi4Ti3O12

Thin films of neodymium-modified bismuth titanate Bi_3.44Nd_0.56Ti₃O₁₂ (BNT) were grown on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si substrates using chemical solution deposition method. The capacitors made by applying top Au electrodes on BNT films showed significantly improved values of the remanent polarization as compared to that using bismuth titanate Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ (BT) films. The 2P _r value for the BNT capacitors was determined to be equal to 38 C/cm² at an applied voltage of 24 V, whereas, for Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ (BT) capacitors a value of 20 C/cm² was measured at the same applied voltage. The maximum piezoelectric and pyroelectric coefficients of 22 pm/V and 112 C/m² K respectively, were measured for the BNT thin films.     

Synthesis and properties of ferroelectric Si-doped (Bi, Nd)4Ti3O12 thin films by chemical solution deposition

Ferroelectric Si-doped (Bi,Nd)₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films have been prepared on Pt/TiO_x/SiO₂/Si substrates through metal-organic compounds by the chemical solution deposition. The Bi_3.25Nd_0.75Ti_2.9Si_0.1O₁₂ (BNTS) precursor films were found to crystallize into the Bi-layered perovskite Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ single-phase above 600^∘C. The synthesized BNTS films revealed a random orientation having a strong 117 reflection. The BNTS thin films prepared between 600^∘C and 700^∘C showed well-saturated P-E hysteresis loops with P _r of 13–14 μ C/cm² and E _c of 100–110 kV/cm at an applied voltage of 5 V. The surface roughness of the BNTS thin films was improved by Si doping compared with that of undoped Bi_3.35Nd_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ films.     

Ferroelectric Properties of (Bi, Sm)4Ti3O12 (BST) Thin Films Fabricated by a Metalorganic Solution Deposition Method

Ferroelectric properties of samarium substituted Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ films, Bi_3.15Sm_0.85Ti₃O₁₂ (BST), were evaluated for use as lead-free thin film ferroelectrics for FeRAM applications. The BST films were fabricated on the Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si(100) substrates by a metalorganic solution deposition method. The measured XRD patterns revealed that the BST films showed only a Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂-type phase with a random orientation. The BST film capacitors showed excellent ferroelectric properties. For the film capacitor annealed at 700C, 2P_r of 64.2 C/cm² and 2E_c of 101.7 kV/cm at applied electric field of 150 kV/cm were observed. The capacitor did not show any significant fatigue up to 1.5 × 10⁸ read/write switching cycles at a frequency of 1 MHz, which suggests that the samarium should be considered for a promising lanthanide elements to make a good thin ferroelectric film for memory applications.     

Ionic Doping Effects in SrBi2Nb2O9 Ferroelectric Ceramics

Ionic doping effects of various ions in Bi-layered ferroelectric SrBi₂Nb₂O₉ (SBN) ceramics were studied. Un-doped and doped SBN ceramics with Ba²⁺, Pb²⁺, Ca²⁺, Bi³⁺, La³⁺, Ti⁴⁺, Mo⁶⁺, and W⁶⁺ ions were made with solid state reactions. Temperature dependent dielectric constants were measured. Ferroelectric transition temperature (T_C) decreased with Ba²⁺ and Pb²⁺ ions but increased with Ca²⁺ ion which substitutes the 12-coordinated Sr²⁺ site. T_C increased with Ti⁴⁺, Mo⁶⁺, and W⁶⁺ ions which substitute the 6-coordinated Nb⁵⁺ sites. With trivalent Bi³⁺ and La³⁺ ions, T_C increased with Bi³⁺ ion but much decreased with La³⁺ ion. These results showed that the ion size plays an important role in ferroelectricity of SBN ceramics.     

Preparation and Properties of Bi4 − x Nd x Ti3O12 Thin Films by Chemical Solution Deposition

Neodymium-modified Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂, (Bi, Nd)₄Ti₃O₁₂ (BNT) ferroelectric thin films have been prepared on Pt/TiO_x/SiO₂/Si substrates using metal-organic precursor solutions by the chemical solution deposition method. The BNT precursor films crystallized into the Bi layered perovskite Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ (BIT) as a single-phase above 600C. The synthesized BNT films revealed a random orientation having a strong 117 reflection, whereas non-substituted BIT thin films exhibited a random orientation with strong 00l diffractions. Among Bi_{4 – x}Nd_xTi₃O₁₂ [x = 0.0, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0] thin films, Bi_3.25Nd_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ thin films showed a well-saturated P-E hysteresis loop with the highest P_r (22 C/cm²) and a low E_c (69 kV/cm) at an applied voltage of 5 V. The Nd-substitution with the optimum amount for the Bi site in the BIT structure was effective not only for promoting the 117 preferred orientation but also for improving the microstructure and ferroelectric properties of the resultant films.     

Dielectric Properties of Bi4−x La x Ti3O12 (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) Ceramics

The dielectric properties of the Bi_4–x La _x Ti₃O₁₂ (0 x 2) ceramics were characterized and discussed together with the P-E relation (polarization vs. electric field). With increasing x, the P-E relation changed from normal ferroelectric hysteresis loops to pure linear relation, which indicated that La³⁺ substitution for Bi³⁺ in Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ induced a phase transition from ferroelectric to paraelectric state at ambient temperature. Low loss dielectric ceramics with temperature stable dielectric constant were obtained for x > 1.2 in Bi_4–x La _x Ti₃O₁₂ at 1 MHz. And the loss increased in all the compositions when the ceramics were measured at microwave frequencies.     

Flux-mediated epitaxy for ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 single crystal film growth

We propose the “Flux-mediated epitaxy” as a novel concept for the growth of single crystalline films of incongruent, volatile, and high-temperature-melting compounds. In flux-mediated eptitaxy, by supplying materials precursors from the gas phase through the liquid flux films pre-deposited on the substrate, a quasi-thermodynamic equilibrium condition is obtained at the interface between the growing films and the flux films. This process has been demonstrated in this paper by fabricating ferroelectric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ films, which has volatile Bi oxide. The most important step in this process is the selection of the right flux material, which is hard to predict due to the lack of an appropriate phase diagram. In order to overcome this problem, we have selected the combinatorial approach. A series of ternary flux libraries composed of two self-fluxes (Bi₂O₃ and Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂) and a third impurity flux were fabricated on SrTiO₃ (001) substrates. After that, stoichiometric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ films were grown on each of these flux libraries at a temperature presumed to melt the flux. High-throughput characterization with the concurrent X-ray diffraction method resulted in the identification of CuO containing Bi₂O₃ as the flux material for the growth of single crystalline Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ films. Stoichiometric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ films fabricated by using a novel CuO containing Bi₂O₃ are qualified to be single crystalline judging from their large grain size and the electrical properties equivalent to bulk single crystal’s.     

Fatigue Melioration of Neodymium-Modified Bi4Ti3O12 Ceramics

Pure and Nd-modified Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ ceramics were prepared using the conventional solid state reaction method and their dielectric properties and mechanical properties are investigated. It shows that the activation energy of oxygen vacancies is enhanced whereas the concentration of oxygen vacancies is reduced when Bi³⁺ ions are partially substituted by Nd³⁺ ions. The Cole-Cole fitting to the dielectric loss reveals a strong correlation among oxygen vacancies. The strong correlation reduces the activation energy of oxygen vacancies efficiently. Therefore, we conclude that the diluted oxygen vacancies concentration is the origin of the excellent fatigue resistance of Nd-modified Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ materials.     

Ferroelectric Properties of Mo-Doped Bi4-XLaXTi3O12 Films

Mo-doped Bi_3.35La_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BLTM) films were deposited on Pt/Ti bottom electrodes by using a sol-gel method and crystallized at 700°C for 30 min in O₂ atmosphere. The ferroelectric properties were greatly improved by substituting B-site ions with Mo ions and the BLTM films showed strong preferred (117) orientation. Typical remanent polarization (2Pr) and coercive field (2Ec) values were 32.0 μC?cm^?2 and 158 kV?cm^?1, respectively. It was also found that the leakage current densities in the BLTM films were lower than those in Bi_3.35La_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) films.     

Formation Mechanism of Plate-like Bi4Ti3O12 Particles in Molten Salt Fluxes

The plate-like Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ particles were prepared by molten salt synthesis method. The influence of sintering temperature and cooling process on the microstructure of Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ powders was studied. Much larger particles were formed at higher temperatures. The particles could grow larger in slow cooling process. The formation mechanism of plate-like Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ particles in Na₂SO₄-K₂SO₄ system could be viewed as four processes: (1) solid reaction and nucleation, (2) plate-like structure formation, (3) diffusion and edge nucleation, (4) diffusion and epitaxial growth.     

Structure of sol-gel prepared ferroelectric Bi3.4La0.6Ti3O12

The Bi_3.4La_0.6Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) thin film and powder have been prepared by a sol-gel method with annealing at 700^°C. Randomly oriented BLT thin film exhibits a large remanent polarization, 2P _r = 72 μC/cm², with a dc applied field strength of 320 kV/cm. Structure of sol-gel derived BLT powder has been investigated by neutron scatterings, and refined by a Rietveld method resulting a reasonable goodness of fit (wR _p = 6.7%, and R _p = 5.7%) using an orthorhombic (B2cb, a = 5.4221 Å, b = 5.4032 Å, and c = 32.8361 Å). Two different TiO₆ octahedra exhibit different polarization directions; (100) from Ti(1)O₆, and (011) from Ti(2)O₆, which explains the observed large 2P _r of the randomly oriented BLT thin film.     

Ferroelectric properties of (Bi3.15 Nd 0.85 )Ti 3 O 12 with decreasing film thickness

Film texture and ferroelectric behaviors of (Bi_3.15Nd_0.85)Ti₃O₁₂ (BNdT) of layered-perovskite structure deposited on Pt/TiO₂/Si substrate are dependent on the film thickness. When the film thickness is reduced from ∼240 to ∼120 nm, BNdT grains evolve from a rod-like morphology to a spherical morphology, accompanied by a decrease in average grain size. At the same time, P-E hysteresis transforms from a square-shaped hysteresis loop (2Pr ∼24.1 μC/cm² at 240 nm) to a relative slimmer hysteresis loop (with a lower 2Pr = 19.8 μC/cm² at 120 nm). The nonvolatile polarization (Δ P) shows a maximum at the film thickness of 160 nm, where Δ P was measured to be 14.7 μC/cm² and 6.8 μC/cm² at 5 V and 3 V, respectively. A small amount of excess bismuth in the film thickness of 130 nm, introduced by co-sputtering, can lead to a much enhanced remanent polarization (2Pr of 21.3 μC/cm² at 5 V and 15.2 μC/cm²at 3 V), which is promising for low voltage FRAM applications.     

The Effect of La-Doped Bi4Ti3O12 Buffer Layer on Crystallinity and Ferroelectric Properties of PbZr0.58Ti0.42O3/Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 Multilayered Thin Films

PbZr_0.58Ti_0.42O₃ (PZT) ferroelectric thin films with Bi_3.25La_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) buffer layer of various thickness were fabricated on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/p-Si(100) substrates by rf-magnetron sputtering method. The pure PZT film showed (111) preferential orientation in the XRD patterns, and the PZT/BLT films showed (110) preferential orientation with increasing thickness of the BLT layer. There were no obvious diffraction peaks for the BLT buffer layer, for its thin thickness in PZT/BLT multilayered films. There were the maximum number of largest-size grains in PZT/BLT(30 nm) film among all the samples from the surface images of FESEM. The growth direction and grain size had significant effects on ferroelectric properties of the multilayered films. The fatigue characteristics suggested that 30-nm-thick BLT was just an effective buffer layer enough to alleviate the accumulation of oxygen vacancies near the PZT/BLT interface. The comparison of these results suggests that the buffer layer with an appropriate thickness can improve the ferroelectric properties of multilayered films greatly.     

Preparation of Epitaxial Bi4Ti3O12 Thin Films on LaAlO3(012) Substrates by a Spin Coating-Pyrolysis Process

Bismuth titanate Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films were prepared on LaAlO₃(012) substrates by a spin coating-pyrolysis process using metal naphthenates as starting materials. The c-axis oriented Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films, which contained no second phases as –2 scans, were obtained by heat-treatment in air at temperatures of 600°C and above. X-ray diffraction pole-figure analysis showed that the Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin film has an epitaxial relationship with the LaAlO₃ substrate.     

Co-Modification of Ba5NdTi3Ta7O30 Dielectric Ceramics by Substitution and Introducing Secondary Phase

Co-modification of Ba₅NdTi₃Ta₇O₃₀ dielectrics ceramics was investigated through Pb substitution for Ba and introducing Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ secondary phase. The dielectric constant increased from 150 to 283, the temperature coefficient of the dielectric constant decreased from –2500 ppm/°C to –1279 ppm/°C, and the dielectric loss decreased to 0.0007 at 1 MHz. Meanwhile, the bi-phase ceramics were investigated to achieve temperature stable ceramics with high dielectric constant and low dielectric loss. As the composition x varied from 0.4 to 0.7 for (1 – x)(Ba_0.8Pb_0.2)₅NdTi₃Ta₇O₃₀/xBi₄Ti₃O₁₂, the temperature coefficient of the dielectric constant changed from negative to zero to positive.     

FERROELECTRIC,PIEZOELECTRIC AND DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF Nb MODIFIED Bi4Ti3O12-SrBi4Ti4O15 INTERGROWTH

ABSTRACT

Doping and constructing intergrowth are found to be an effectual approach to modify the electrical properties of bismuth layer-structured ferroelectrics. In this work, ferroelectric, piezoelectric and dielectric properties of Nb-doped Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂-SrBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ (BTN-SBTN-x) intergrowth ceramics were investigated. The ferroelectric property of Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂-SrBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ was improved by niobium doping. The remanent polarization (2P _r ) increases at first, then decreases with the increase of niobium content, while the coercive field changes little with Nb-doping. As niobium content is 0.06, the 2P _r maximizes at a value of 34.9 μC/cm², which is increased by about 75% in comparison with that of Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂-SrBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ (2P _r = 20.0 μC/cm²). The Curie temperature of the samples varies hardly upon Nb-doping, which indicates that the good thermal stability of Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂-SrBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ is not deteriorated after Nb addition. Piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ was increased from 9.3 pC·N^?1 to 18.6 pC·N^?1 due to the enlargement of 2P _r .     

Preparation of Bi4Ti3O12 thin films by electron cyclotron resonance sputtering

Abstract

Ferroelectric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films were deposited on Pt-coated oxidized Si substrate by electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) sputtering using ceramic targets. Crystal structure and dielectric properties of the films were investigated as functions of sputtering conditions such as substrate temperature and sputtering gas. Using a target with excess Bi content compared to stoichiometric composition was required to compensate Bi re-evaporation from the substrate and to obtain a perovskite single phase at 600°C. (117)-oriented films exhibited ferroelectric hysteresis loops. The remanent polarization and coercive field of the films were 9.8 μC/cm² and 180 kV/cm, respectively.     

Low Temperature Process for Synthesis of (100) Textured Pb(Zr0.48Ti0.52)O3 Thin Films on Si Substrate by Laser Lift-Off Transferring Technique

(100) textured Pb(Zr_0.48Ti_0.52)O₃ (PZT) films were prepared on silicon substrates by MOD process and laser lift-off technique. Textured PZT films were first grown on (001) Sapphire substrate, using Ba(Mg_1/3Ta_2/3)O₃ (BMT) materials as buffer layer. The (100) textured PZT/BMT/Sapphire films were attached to Si substrate using a transient-liquid-phase Pd-In bonding process, and then were separated from Sapphire substrates by a laser lift-off process, in which, a 38 ns pulse from excimer laser (248 nm) at 600 mJ/cm² fluence melted BMT buffer layer, expelling the Sapphire. The crystallinity of the surface of films was further improved by laser annealing. X-ray diffraction analysis of the PZT films showed that the crystallographic structure of films is maintained during laser lift-off process. Electrical testing of the films after laser lift-off process followed by laser annealing demonstrated that the ferroelectric properties are retained for the transferred films (P_r = 9μ C/cm² and E_c = 74 kV/cm).     

Oriented growth of Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 thin films on RuO2/SiO2/Si substrates by using the polymeric precursor method: Structural, microstructural and electrical properties

c-axis oriented Bi_3.25La_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) thin films were grown on a RuO₂ top electrode deposited on a (100) SiO₂/Si substrate by the polymeric precursor method. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscope investigations indicate that the films exhibit a dense, well crystallized microstructure having random orientations with a rather smooth surface morphology. The electrical properties of preferred oriented Bi_3.25La_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) thin films deposited on RuO₂ bottom electrode leaded to a large remnant polarization (P _r ) of 17.2 μC/cm² and (V _c ) of 1.8 V, fatigue free characteristics up to 10¹⁰ switching cycles and a current density of 2.2 μA/cm² at 5 V. We found that the polarization loss is insignificant with nine write/read voltages at a waiting time of 10,000 s. Independently of the applied electric field the retained switchable polarization approached a nearly steady-state value after a retention time of 10 s.